Mission: Minecraft
by SRFFG06
Summary: Six boys, Benjamin, Samuel, Johnathan, Daniel, Fred and Marcus, are a group of friends that spend most of their free time playing on Benjamin's Minecraft Realm. But when they are suddenly sucked into their Minecraft world, completely reset to the beginning, to embark on a mission they never knew existed, how will they survive?
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

**Author's start note: Hey readers! This is my first time uploading to Fanfiction, so it might be trash, depending on what your standards are. Took me an hour or so to write, but, I tried my best! :) Anyway, all six boys belong to me, Minecraft and all its characters belong to Mojang, and enjoy! :D**

**Chapter 1: The Beginning**

"Arrrrggghhh! Help me! I'm burning!" cried Samuel.

"Bro, really? How dumb can you get?" chastised Johnathan.

"Oh my god…," muttered Daniel.

"What in the actual hell is wrong with you?" yelled Fred.

"Really, Samuel, this is getting outrageous," grumbled Marcus.

"Shut up, you four! Seriously, Sam? This is the THIRD time! Stop falling into lava and –"

*MCSam465 tried to swim in lava*

"…"

"Wow."

"Oh my god…"

"What the -?"

"Ah, I saw that coming."

"Ugghhh…"

I sighed as I read that death quote. In all honesty, though, I knew that Samuel was a bad player, in other words, a noob. But mind you, I would've assumed that after dying from lava two times before, Samuel would get the idea that maybe jumping into the pools of the red, hot liquid would not be a good idea. I'm sure the others would agree.

"Okay, I respawned. What do I do?"

"What do you think? TRY TO USE YOUR COMMON SENSE, YOU ABSOLUTE DI-"

"OKAY, FRED, THAT'S ENOUGH! Sam, where are you right now?"

"Uuuhhhh…"

I waited while Samuel tried to take in his surroundings. I heard a gasp in my headphones.

"What is it?"

"ZOMBIES! ARRRGGHHHHHH-"

*MCSam465 was slain by Zombie*

I facepalmed.

"Bro, seriously? What in the actual –"

*MCSam465 was slain by Zombie*

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" yelled Fred.

*MCSam465 was shot by Skeleton*

Great. It looked like I had to use my powers as the owner of this Minecraft Realm to teleport Samuel to my base. I did so, and soon enough, he appeared in front of me. He looked like a porcupine with all the arrows sticking out of him.

"Thanks for teleporting me, Ben! I owe you one!"

I sighed.

"Look, next time, don't go hunting for monsters if you don't know what's going on. Promise me that, okay?"

"Sure, hehe."

Suddenly, a voice called up from the kitchen.

"Benjamin? It's time for dinner. Come down to the table right now!"

"Okay, mum!" I called back. I turned back to face the screen.

"Look, guys, I have to go eat dinner. How about we play together after I eat dinner, okay?"

There was silence.

"Sure! See you later!"

"See ya, bro!"

"Bye!"

"Later!"

"Goodbye!"

*MCSam465 left the game.*

*Johnnyboi87 left the game*

*Danmonds left the game*

*FreddyFredFreds left the game*

*Markcraft43 left the game*

I closed Minecraft, took off my gaming headset and headed down to the dining room. As I did, I thought of the same thing that I always thought whenever I stopped playing Minecraft.

What would it be like if I lived INSIDE Minecraft?

Of course, that was impossible, but it was still fun to think of. As I ate my dinner of mashed potatoes, peas and pork chops, images of diamond swords and mining down to the depths of the world filled my mind.

_**Meanwhile…**_

Somewhere, in a specific luxurious mansion in California, resided the creator of Minecraft himself. Notch faced the man who sat beside him.

"Well, partner, I think it is time to send the first bunch of recruits into the mission."

The partner gasped.

"But sir, wouldn't it be dangerous? I mean, think of the consequences, like –"

"I have already been through the list of consequences 10 times. I've made sure that any player who dies WILL respawn. I made sure of it. No chances of real deaths occurring. The objective is clear, and I have made sure an instruction manual has been placed inside every player's inventory when they spawn. They will know what to do."

"But sir, what if they take forever? What if they get stuck in the Realm forever? What would their parents say?"

"No time will pass for us while the six boys are doing what they must. If my calculations are correct, the results of their quest will come back to us three seconds after they are transported into the Realm."

"I see. May I have a look at the list of players?"

"Sure, here you go. I'll just wait for all the members to join. Probably eating dinner right now."

The partner took the list, and scanned the six names.

**Mission: Minecraft #1**

_Owner: Minebencraft321_

_Members: MCSam465_

_Johnnyboi87_

_Danmonds_

_FreddyFredFreds_

_Markcraft43_

Notch looked at the screen of his computer and saw the words he was waiting for.

**Members active: 6**

**Initiate mission?**

He took a deep breath as he hovered the mouse cursor over the "Yes" option.

"Good luck, recruits."

And he clicked.

**Back to Benjamin's house…**

After dinner, I rushed up to my bedroom, shut the door, and launched Minecraft. I quickly went onto my Discord server and typed in,

"Hey guys, I'm playing MC. Wanna join?"

The chatroom was immediately flooded with agreements.

I connected and saw the chatroom filled with the usual chatter. Samuel stood in front of me, repeatedly crouching and bombing the chatroom with greetings.

All of a sudden, the screen started to become white. I was confused. This never happened before. What was going on? Was this a virus?

Then it happened. I started to hear static, as well as feeling some sort of force sucking me towards the screen of my computer. My vision started to become white. I tried to scream for help, but all that came out was a glitchy sound that bore some resemblance to my voice. My vision turned completely white as I continued to get sucked into the computer screen, the sound of static reverberating around me.

And then I passed out, darkness consuming me.

**Author's end note: Thanks for reading my first Fanfic! As I said before, write a review if you want, you can say it was rubbish if that's what you thought. Anyway, hope you have a wonderful day! Chapter 2 coming sometime soon! **


	2. Chapter 2: First day, first night

**Author's Start Note: Welcome to the second chapter of Mission: Minecraft! Not much to say here: the 6 boys belong to me, all Minecraft characters to Mojang, and let's dive right in!**

**Chapter 2: First day, first night**

I woke up to the feeling of warm sunlight shining on my face. It felt good. A wonderful and very refreshing way to start off a day.. Under me, I could smell the unmistakable scent of… dirt?

My eyes snapped open. Why was I sleeping on dirt? Did my older brother chuck me out the window again? But I couldn't remember going to sleep. From what I remember, I was on my desktop, playing Minecra -

…

It all started coming back to me. My vision turning white, the static, being sucked into the computer.

Wait a minute.

I looked around me, hoping to see the usual: my bed, my desktop, my books.

But all I saw were a few trees here and there, a pig, two cows and some chickens.

But that was the least of my concerns.

The fact that all of them were cuboid was more concerning to me.

Just like in Minecraft.

…

Oh no…

Have I been -?

No, I couldn't have. This, this was all a dream! It had to be!

I pinched myself to wake myself up.

But when I lifted my hand to pinch myself, I screamed.

Because when I saw my hands, instead of my usual human hands appearing, a more blocky, cuboid hand appeared. Just like in Minecraft.

Wait, Minecraft characters don't HAVE fingers. The thick arms ended in just flat stumps.

Meh, never mind.

Anyway, I pinched myself on my lower arm. Hard. So hard that when I did, I winced and an audible crack sounded.

Hmmm, that crack.

I've heard it before. But where?

I gasped in realization.

"The sound you make when you get damaged!" I randomly exclaimed to myself. I slapped my chunky hands over my mouth, which, funnily enough, felt like a slit made in my face.

"Just like in those various Minecraft animations I've watched!" I randomly blurted out again. Boy, did I have a habit of randomly saying my thoughts out loud. I took in a deep breath, and let it out.

"Okay, first things first. My name is Benjamin. I am 15 years old, I was, for some unknown and strange reason, sucked into Minecraft. I don't know what I'm doing here, but I need to find a way out…"

A way out.

I gasped again.

My home! What about my parents? What will they do when they see me gone from the room?

Emotions swept over me like a wave. In moments, my eyes watered and I curled up into a ball and started bawling my eyes out. Now please don't think of me as a baby for breaking down after thinking about home. I usually don't do this *ahem*. I stayed in that ball for a while and continued sobbing.

After a bit, I stopped crying and stood up. My face was wet with tears, and with the steady wind that started to blow a minute or so ago, the tears were starting to dry. And I'm sure you know how uncomfortable dried tears are.

I looked for a water source and eventually found one about fifteen blocks away from where I had my meltdown. I bent over the water and looked at myself.

To be honest, I was a bit shocked to see my Minecraft skin face looking back at me from the water's shimmery surface. After looking at myself every morning before school, I kind of got accustomed to seeing my real face in every reflection. But now, since I got sucked into Minecraft, I guessed that I had to just get used to seeing the awesome skin that I made myself every time I looked into something that made a reflection (mirrors don't exist in Minecraft).

I washed my face, rubbing the water over my flat face and washing off the tears. After that, I dried the water off by wiping my face on my arm and looked around.

My blood froze cold.

Standing behind me was a group of mobs. About five zombies, three skeletons, two spiders and a creeper. A zombie growled at the other zombies, and they all started to slowly amble their way towards me, groaning. I glance up at the sky. Shoot. It was night. What with all the emotions and confusion, I had been unaware of the darkness slowly settling down into the sky.

As the zombies made their way towards me, the spiders scuttled along the ground, making their distinctive spider sounds. Their red eyes glowed in the dark, making them look ten times scarier. The skeletons glared at me with their hollow eye sockets and readied their bows. The creeper –

Wait, where did the creeper go?

My question was answered by a loud hissing noise centimetres behind me.

I knew what that meant. As quick as a bolt, I dashed away in a random direction. But even that wasn't enough. As I ran, a ground shaking BOOM sounded, shock waves rippling through the ground. I was knocked off my feet, and I fell over. A familiar crack could be heard at that moment.

I quickly got up and looked behind me. There was a big crater in the ground, with little dirt blocks scattered around. All the zombies were dead.

Pathetic.

Only one spider remained.

Oh no.

All the skeletons were still alive.

OH NO!

They seemed to have gotten shocked by the creeper explosion, too, since the arrows they loaded were dropped on the ground. They reloaded their bows and aimed them at me.

Just as I was about to dodge, I heard rustling behind me. I whipped my head round, only to leave my poor head's back to be impaled by three arrows. I yelped in pain, the same crack sounding. The skeletons, despite not being able to express any facial expressions whatsoever, looked as if they were glad that they finally got their arrows stuck into my body. They simultaneously loaded their bows again and aimed.

Just as a stone sword flew out of the forest behind them and skewered one of the bony horrors right in the ribs.

**Author's end note: And there we have it! The end of the second chapter! Another cliffhanger! Apologies to those who hate cliffhangers. Anyway, expect the third chapter to be out sometime soon and have a good day/night! :D**


	3. Chapter 3: Friendly encounters

**Author's Start note: The third chapter! Continuing off from the scene with the stone sword flying out of nowhere and hitting one of the skeletons. Now that the mini recap is done, the 6 boys belong to me, all Minecraft characters to Mojang, and let's roll!**

**Chapter 3: Friendly encounters**

As the sword sliced through the skeleton, the bones that it was composed of collapsed into a pile on the ground. It wasn't long before the pile disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a single bone and a bow. The other two skeletons looked at it, with no expressions on their bony faces, then at the trees behind it.

Suddenly, someone, no doubt a player, jumped out of the tree's leaves, and landed skillfully. Another one burst out from behind the tree, probably the one who threw the sword. Another one jumped out of the tree, but unlike the first one, awkwardly on their feet and fell over on their face, a crack sounding as they landed.

The two skeletons immediately loaded their bows and prepared to shoot, but as they did, the one who jumped out of the tree clicked their fingers (how did they do it with those blocky fingers?) and something that bore a striking resemblance to the Minecraft inventory popped up in front of them. They grabbed a sword, probably another stone one, snapped their fingers again (HOW?) and rushed forward. The one who skillfully jumped out of the tree grabbed the bow that lay next to the pile of bones from the dead skeleton and loaded an arrow. The one who fell over just lay there, clutching their ankle, rocking back and forth and obviously whimpering.

All that action took my mind off the remaining spider, who scuttled towards me. I looked around, looking for anything to protect myself with.

Nothing.

Suddenly, the one holding a sword looked over at my direction. They seemed to have finished off the skeleton they had dealt with. They held their sword javelin-style and chucked the sword at the spider that was merely a few blocks away from me.

The spider glared at me with its glowing red eyes and prepared to pounce when the sword the player threw stabbed it right in the back. It gave some sort of sigh of pain before collapsing on the ground. It wasn't long before the body disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving what looked like string, and something that looked awfully like, urgh!

It was a pulsing, red spider eye.

I knew what they looked like in Minecraft, but never did I imagine that I would have to pick one up in real life. Even though it was still made of little cubes, it felt squishy, slippery and velvety. Just looking at it made me gag.

Anyway, I looked at the two items in my hand. I knew that in Minecraft, whatever is lying around within about a one block radius, the stuff goes into your inventory or hotbar. But how was I to –

"Hey, having trouble with playing Minecraft in real life, eh, Ben?"

I looked up at the person who just talked to me. The same guy who threw the swords. I recognized the skin that decorated the player.

"Fred? Is that you?" I stammered.

"Who else, ya doof? You think I would've been someone like Sam over there?" He tilted his head at the direction of Samuel, who apparently was the guy who fell out of the tree and probably broke his leg. He was still cradling his ankle, but he wasn't whimpering anymore. I could recognize the skin that Samuel used when playing Minecraft.

"What about the other guy? The guy with the bow?" I asked.

The guy shot another arrow at the skeleton, but missed. He muttered, "Oh my god" and grabbed the sword Fred used to kill the first skeleton and swiped at the bony monster in front of him, knocking off its head, killing it. He panted, kneeling over to catch his breath. After a while, he turned around, looked at me and smiled.

"Yo, what's up, Benny?"

I also recognized the skin. And the usual "oh my god"s.

"Daniel!"

"You got that right."

"You are SO bad at shooting with a bow, Dan."

"Oh my god, just shut up!"

I grinned. Typical Daniel.

"So," I said, "Where's the others?"

Fred shrugged.

"Dunno. I'm sure we'll run into them sometime soon. But for now, I think we should be worrying about something else right now." He motioned around us.

He was right. It was still night time, and sure enough, monsters could be seen in the distance.

"Uh, do you guys have beds?" I asked.

The two shook their heads.

"Nope. I mean, I would've, until I found Sam over there wandering around holding a stick, trying to fight off a zombie. But you know how bad he is at combat."

"HEY! I HEARD THAT!"

I looked around Fred to see Samuel limping towards us. Daniel shook his head slightly and muttered his usual saying.

"Ah, I see your ankle has gotten better," sneered Fred.

"I sprained it!" Samuel cried back.

"Sam, you only fell four blocks. You probably only got damaged a tiny bit."

Samuel groaned. Fred rolled his eyes and turned back to me. He opened his inventory and took out a stone sword. He held it out to me.

"Here, take it. I think it's about time the leader of all of us held a weapon."

I gasped.

"Wait WHAT? Leader? But, why?"

Daniel walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Benjamin, you're the guy who bought the realm. You might not have noticed it yet, but this world, this Seed, is the same one we have been playing on for God knows how long. It will only be a matter of time before we all bring up our game and defeat the Ender dragon."

I gasped again, and coughed from inhaling through my mouth too much.

"How do you know all this?"

"Snap your fingers."

I did so, and my inventory popped up. Inside was a little book. I put down my sword, took the book out and it enlarged in my hand, into the size of a normal size. I read the front cover.

**Mission: Minecraft #1**

I opened it up and looked at the front page. There were six names that looked like they belonged to Minecraft players.

Oh wait, hold on. They were our names.

Oh.

And my username was in gold, with the word "Leader" next to it.

Double oh.

I flipped to the next page. It read:

_Congratulations, recruits! You and your friends have been chosen to be the first ever people to participate in our first __experiment__ journey! _

_As a starter note, I would just like to point out a few stuff. First off, respawning will occur when you die, just like in Minecraft. You will either respawn in the same place you did when you first came into this world, or you will respawn in your own bed, if you slept in one._

_Further instructions will be explained in the other pages. _

_Wish you the best of luck!_

_Notch_

I was just about to flip to the next page when I heard Samuel scream.

"ZOMBIES!"

I looked around and saw a mob of zombies surrounding us. I put my book back in my inventory and snapped my fingers, closing it. I picked up my sword and took on a fighting pose.

"Posing for the cameras for The Local Fighting Guys, Ben?"

I looked over at Fred.

"First of all, what's The Local Fighting Guys? Second of all, I'm preparing myself for intense combat. _Third_ of all, how and why do you have so many stone swords?"

"To answer your first question, I made it up on the spot. Four your second question, I didn't waste time the moment I spawned in. I immediately went for the trees, made myself a pick, then a sword. Repeat process so that you have spares for yourself and others."

A zombie shuffled towards me and growled. I scoffed and stabbed it in the head. Another one tried to hit me from behind, but I spun around and got it in the stomach. A third one tried to jump onto me, but failed miserably and fell flat on its face in front of me. A perfect opportunity to give it a good ol' stab in the head.

"Pathetic," I muttered to myself as I killed the third zombie.

I looked around, and saw Fred and Daniel finishing off two zombies. Samuel just stood there, waving his stick around in the hopes that it would hit the zombie in front of him.

It wasn't long before all the zombies that surrounded us were gone. Fortunately for us, the sun was starting to come up, yellow and orange beginning to colour the sky. We looked around for any more monsters, before giving each other a high five.

"Bro, get that creeper over there! I'll get the other one!"

"At your commands!"

I looked around, as well as everyone else. We knew what that meant, or, as it was, who the voices belonged to. We looked at the forest, just in time to see a creeper fly out of it and land on the ground, sliding a little. It gave one final hiss before disappearing in the usual puff of smoke. In its place lay a pile of what seemed like gunpowder.

I walked over to it and picked it up. It kind of came up like each individual powder was stuck together. Very strange. They still looked like a pile of gunpowder, despite being stuck together.

Suddenly, another creeper came flying out again, but unlike the previous one, it stood back up after falling over. Obviously, it noticed us. It slowly walked over to us, and stopped in front of me. It started pulsing violently, shaking and its skin was flashing white.

'Welp,' I thought to myself. 'I'm screwed. Goodbye, cruel wor -'

A stone blade sliced through the chest of the creeper. It stopped flashing white and pulsing, its black eyes widening. Then POOF! It disappeared, revealing the person who killed the creeper.

"SAMUEL! Oh god, thank you SO much! For a moment, I thought I was going to die, but no! You saved me, man! You SAVED me!"

Fred came over and slapped him on the back hard, a crack sounding as he did.

"You DID something, ya wimp! You did something USEFUL!"

"Samuel did something useful, you say?"

We all turned around and saw what looked like Johnathan and Marcus walking towards us. Johnathan was holding a bow in one hand and a wooden sword in the other. Marcus was next to him, holding a stone axe.

"Bro, never knew Sam would do something heroic, but BRO, was I wrong!" exclaimed Johnathan, walking over and patting Samuel on the back hard, but not as hard as Fred's.

"Well done, Samuel. I congratulate you," complemented Marcus, who came over and shook Samuel's hand.

"Yeah, man! Great JOB!" Fred slapped Samuel on the back. The moment he did, Samuel collapsed on the floor. The crack sounded, but when it did, Samuel disappeared into a puff of smoke, leaving only a single stick and the instruction book at his place.

We all looked at the place that Samuel just died on, and then turned our heads to face Fred, who just grinned sheepishly.

"Whoops."

**Author's End note: And there we have it! Poor Samuel, he died from a friendly gesture that went too far. Remember, readers, don't negatively NOR positively physically abuse people. It will not end well.**

**Anyway, there's the third chapter over and done with! Fourth chapter will probably be about the six guys trying to settle in, you know, build houses and stuff. Fourth chapter will be out soon! Stay cool! :D**


	4. Chapter 4: Making the most of it

**Author's Start note: Here we are with Chapter 4! Sorry for the long wait. Schoolwork and life got in the way. But yes, as I said in the End note in the previous chapter, this one will be devoted to the six guys trying to settle in with the world. They will finish reading the instruction manual first, before they get constructing. Anyway, all six boys belong to me, Minecraft characters to Mojang, and let's begin!**

**Chapter 4: Making the most of it**

A few seconds after Samuel died, we could hear a popping noise about ten blocks away from us. We all turned around to face Samuel, newly respawned.

Boy, did he look angry.

He stomped over to us, and upon reaching us, he bent down, grabbed the stick he dropped when he died and started whacking Fred repeatedly over the head with it. Crack upon crack could be heard. When he did, the rest of us were scared out of our wits, since we didn't expect such a violent act coming from someone so naïve and, how do I put it nicely, uh, _dull_.

We expected Samuel to stop after a few whacks, but things started to get concerning when he continued hitting Fred after ten seconds. I cautiously approached Samuel from behind and pulled him away.

"LET ME AT HIM! LET ME AT HIM!" he yelled as I pulled him away from Fred, who, for a strong and confident guy, was cowering like a baby. Samuel continued to pull away, waving the stick around like a sword.

I grabbed the stick from his hand and snapped it in half. Then I bent down, grabbed Samuel's instruction manual and whapped him over the head with it.

"Samuel! Have you ever heard of the saying 'two wrongs don't make a right'? Just because Fred accidently killed you does not, and I repeat, does NOT, give you the right to kill him. It was all an accident, and unless you two don't shake hands and make up this instance, I will do whatever it takes for me to find a lava pool, and when I do, I will make sure you two are with me and I will push _both _of you into it! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

That shut Samuel up. Slowly, he lowered his arms and sighed. I looked over at Fred, who was now glowering at Samuel instead of cowering from him. I raised an eyebrow.

"Fred? Did you hear what I just said?"

Reluctantly, he walked over and held out his right hand. Samuel took it, and they shook.

"I'm sorry," they both apologized at the same time. I smiled at them.

"Good! Now that that's settled, I think it's about time we finished reading about why the hell we're here. Do you all agree?"

Everyone nodded. Fred, who no longer had a sour look on his face, smiled at me.

"Starting to take on your leadership role now, eh, Ben?"

"Uh-huh, and you'd better not pull any stunts like you did five minutes ago, or else I'll _punish _you. Got it?"

Fred scowled.

"Yeah, yeah. No need to be all moody on me. Geez."

"Ahem."

We all looked at Marcus.

"Uh, guys? Excuse me for interrupting, but do you not think we should start building houses? I'm not sure I'll last not sleeping for another night."

I knew he had a point there.

"Uh, yeah, I think you're right. But just wait, okay, Marcus We'll get to that after we finish reading this manual, cool with that?"

He thought for a bit, then held out two thumbs-ups.

"Great! Now, where were we? Ah, yes." I flipped to the page after the introduction.

_For Minebencraft321,_

_You are, as mentioned before, the leader of the group. As the moderator of this world, or Realm, whatever you want to call it, you have the powers to achieve acts no one else in your group can. These include:_

_\- The ability to turn off Mob Grief, such as creeper explosion pits, Endermen taking blocks, Ghasts blowing stuff up, etc. _

_\- Turn on and off Keep Inventory._

"WHAT? That's IT? And to think that being the moderator of this Realm would give me god-like powers?"

I continued reading.

_And I know what you're thinking. "WHAT? That's IT? And to think that being the moderator of this Realm would give me god-like powers?"_

I sighed, before continuing to read.'

_And yes, I did consider giving you all the powers a moderator could have. Until I realized that the mission would be completed before you could say "Diamonds"._

_Which brings me to the purpose of the mission itself!_

I flipped to the next page.

_**Mission: Minecraft**_

_This mission is a test of bravery, trust and stamina. You will have unlimited time to do this, so it is your choice if you want to stay in the world forever. Rest assured that you will not age in the duration of the mission, so choosing to stay forever ultimately means you are willing to stay in a game for all of eternity. Otherwise, if you have successfully completed the mission, or you decide to forfeit, simply go onto your command console and type in a command. To access it, simply clap your hands two times, and a screen and a keyboard will appear. Pressing esc will exit the command console._

_If you have completed the mission, the command should be:_

_**/end mission:minecraft complete**_

_If you have failed to complete the mission and wish to forfeit, the commands should be:_

_**/end mission:minecraft incomplete**_

_Please keep in mind that we will be able to know if you have fully completed the mission or not, so there is no point in lying. Penalty will be loss of your Minecraft account._

_No time will pass while you embark on your journey, so there is no need to fret about any panic attacks from parents or loved ones._

_It might or might not come to your head that the world you spawned in is the same as your previous Realm. This might sound useless, but it could save your life. _

_Once the command of completion or forfeit has been submitted, you will all be transported to the exact position you were in before you started the mission. _

_With all of that said, the ultimate goal of the mission is to_

_**DEFEAT THE ENDER DRAGON**_

_By doing so, it will be compulsory that each player gathers at least one level of experience that the dragon drops before the player is permitted to enter the portal and go back to their world. Not doing so will result in the player being knocked back ten blocks from the portal. But as the dragon drops countless levels of experience, it is assured that it will be no problem in getting at least one level._

_Do not bother with trying to remember where the stronghold was placed. All memories of structures, such as villages, dungeons, and especially strongholds, has been removed. _

_It is of the leader's decision on whether or not a Wither should be spawned. It is not compulsory, but by doing so, the value of the prize increases. Prize options will be listed when the mission is completed._

_Before players leave, they are allowed to bring TWO souvenirs with them. This can be done by having the desired objects in both hands. _

_After completion, you will have the privilege to either keep your Realm as it is, make a separate Realm, free of charge, that contains everything you and the participants has ever done in the mission, including chests, or replace your current Realm with the Realm you have made in the mission. If you have made your decision, send an email to Notch about your decision, and the required changes will be made._

_That is all for the instruction manual about the mission. Very unfortunately, any further questions cannot be answered. _

_We wish you the best of luck, recruits._

As I finished reading the last sentence, I snapped the book shut.

"Welp, that was a heck ton of stuff to read. But now that we're all informed on what we have to do, I think it's about time we started settling in."

"What do you mean?" asked Samuel.

"I mean what Marcus told me before I finished reading this. Start building houses, etc. I think we should start now," I explained to Samuel.

Suddenly, a memory from the book came to me.

"Oh, yes! Hold up, let me try something."

I clapped my hands two times. Immediately, a command console appeared in front of me. Everyone gasped in awe.

I looked at the keyboard. I typed in _/gamerule keepInventory true_ and pressed enter. A text appeared on the mini-screen in front of me.

_Game rule has been changed._

I turned to face the rest of the guys.

"So, who's willing to test this out?"

Everyone gasped, except for Samuel, who shrieked.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Calm down!" I exclaimed before clapping my hands twice, exiting the command console. "Now that that's out of the way, I think it's about time we did some constructing. What do you guys think?"

Everyone murmured in agreement, nodding.

"Good! Then what are we waiting for? Let's get started! Hands up if you have an axe?"

Marcus was the only one who raised his arm.

"Well if you wish, Benjamin, I could go make some more," he said.

"Yes, go do that. Now I want you to go pair up with Fred, make sure you both have at least two axes each, then go deforest the forest behind us."

Fred groaned.

"Why do I have to be with the nerd kid?"

I walked over to him and slapped him in the face.

"Do as I say. Go with him and get as much wood as you can. Bring any apples you happen to find. Go now."

Grumbling, Fred stomped over to Marcus, who was patiently waiting at the front of the forest. I faced Daniel and Johnathan.

"You two, you guys are going to be the miners. Can I trust you guys to go get as much stone and iron as possible? Just remember the first rule of Minecraft!"

"Yeah, bro! You can count on us!" replied Johnathan.

"You sure can! But do you not think we should get a crafting table each first?" asked Daniel.

I gasped in realization. But before I could respond, Daniel chucked two crafting tables at me.

"One for you, one for Sam," he told me.

"Wha- how are you guys so prepared?" I stammered.

"Bro, unlike you, we actually got up and did something useful. We didn't have a nice nap like you did," replied Johnathan.

"So what are you guys going to do while we do all the slave work?" asked Daniel.

"We're going to be marking out where you guys are going to be living. We'll live next to each other," I replied.

"We'll be like a little village!" squealed Samuel.

"Oh my god, Ben! Doing all the easy work while we're sweating our shirts off doing labour! We could die while mining for all we know!" exclaimed Daniel.

"Excuse me, Daniel, but who's the leader here? Who's the guy who has the responsibility of this entire mission on his back? Who's the guy who's trying to organize things the best he can here? Who's the guy tha –"

I was interrupted by stacks and stacks of oak and birch logs being thrown at my feet.

"Hope that's enough. Would've gotten more, but an attempt at mass deforestation using only a stone axe can really tire someone's arms out, you know?" said Fred.

"We tried our best, Benjamin. I'm famished. Mind if I sit down to have a rest?" asked Marcus.

"Sure, go ahead," I muttered. Daniel grumbled and walked off with Johnathan into a cave about twenty blocks away. I got some wood and made six chests, because I had a feeling we might've needed a storage unit each sometime soon, what with all the wood being brought to us. I grabbed two of the chests and put the oak logs in one, and birch logs in the other.

After a bit, Fred and Marcus went back to get more wood. That left me and Samuel to think about where each person's house was going to be. We managed to assign everyone's land when suddenly, screams of two boys could be heard at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, Johnathan and Daniel came running out, shrieking as if they just saw their worst nightmares come to life. They stopped running when they reached us, upon which they sat down, panting heavily.

"Bro, there *huff* were spiders *puff* and skeletons *huff* and zombies! *puff* Lots of them!" wheezed Johnathan.

"Oh my god, I thought we were going to die!" gasped Daniel.

"Oh by the way," added Johnathan, tossing us a huge pile of cobblestone, coal and iron ores. "We managed to bring with us a huge haul of stone, iron and coal."

"Wow! Great job guys! So I guess it's time to get smelting then? I'll make a furnace."

"No, bro, we already have some." Johnathan opened his inventory and took out four furnaces. He passed one to each of us. Once he did, Samuel and I separated the iron ores and cobblestones into two piles while Johnathan and Daniel went smelting the iron. It wasn't long before we had a total of six stacks of cobblestone and one stack of iron ingots. I made myself a chest to store the stone and iron. While we were doing that, Fred and Marcus came back with another huge haul of wood. Once again, I organised the wood into the two chests, completely filling them both. When they came back, the forest that once stood next to us was reduced to nothing but a few trees here and there. Deforestation can do so much to a forest…

"Now," said Marcus as he looked at all the loot we him, Fred, Daniel and Johnathan collected. "Your part of the deal?"

"Yeah, Samuel and I decided on where your houses will be. But, there's a catch. None of you, and I repeat, NONE of you, will be sleeping by yourself. You will choose a partner, and sleep and live with them."

"WHAT?" everyone blurted out at the same time. Everyone, except me, had a shocked expression on their faces. Including Samuel.

"Samuel, I already told you about this, and you agreed."

"Yeah, I know, but I kind of felt it was appropriate at the moment."

"But you- never mind. So yeah, you guys are going to have to choose a roommate for yourself. And since I'm such a nice leader, I'll let you choose your roommate."

Fred groaned.

"Geez, who do you take all of us for? Babies? Think we can't live by ourselves? Think we're going to wake up in the middle of the night crying and wetting our pants? WE ARE MORE THAN CAPABLE OF LIVING BY OURSELVES, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Really? From what I remember, you were the one who woke up bawling on our sleepover in Year Six, and wouldn't stop crying until your mum came home. So, yeah."

Everyone else sniggered. Fred scowled.

"Now, as I was saying, you will choose a roommate."

Fred groaned so loudly I thought he suddenly got a stomachache.

"SHUT UP, FRED! Anyway, the reason is because unlike back in our normal world, danger lies everywhere."

Samuel raised his hand. I sighed.

"What?"

"But in our normal world, danger still lies around everywhere, like burglars, lightning storms, murderers and rapi-"

"OKAY, THAT'S ENOUGH! JUST LET ME FINISH MY SENTENCES! GEEZ! Anyway, danger lies everywhere here in Minecraft. I know all of you have met some by now. Creeper's especially."

"Like tha –"

"SAMUEL! SHUT! UP! OH MY –"

"No, I meant –"

"NO, I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU WERE MEANING! LET ME FINSIH MY INSTRUCTIONS! LET ME FINI –"

"LOOK OUT!"

A loud hissing noise sounded behind me. I gasped. But before I had any time to say any goodbyes to the world, the hissing stopped. That could only mean one thing.

I spun around, and saw a puff of smoke behind me. When the smoke cleared away, I saw Fred, his sword sticking out. He straightened, wiping his brow with his arm.

"Dude, you've got to stop relying on other people to kill monsters for you. Mind you, I saved your skin this time, but I'm not doing this again. Got it?"

I nodded, still shaking from the second near-death experience. I managed to give Fred a weak smile. He came over and punched me on the shoulder, a crack sounding.

"Still haven't forgiven you for abusing your power and treating us like babies, but I'll get over it," Fred muttered as I rubbed my shoulder. He stood back and gave me the thumbs-up as the signal to keep going.

"Okay. So yeah, in my opinion, you guys will be more safer living with another person. Imagine if a zombie came in. Daniel, get that look off your face. I said imagine it did. Then if you were sleeping by yourself, you wouldn't stand a chance. But if you had another person with you, they could wake up and protect you!"

"And if they don't?" asked Johnathan.

"Well, I – you – urgh, never mind. Look, my point is that there's safety in numbers. If you were living with someone else other than yourself, you would have a greater chance of survival. Do you get it?"

Everyone was silent before they started to nod. I smiled at them.

"Great! Now, I've already agreed to be with Samuel, so he's out. I want you all to be ready to tell me who you want to be with before the sun goes down. Understood?"

Everyone said some form of agreement, and started asking each other if they wanted to be their roommate. While I was waiting, I picked up four stacks of wood, two stacks for me and two stacks for Samuel, and we started turning them all into wooden planks. There seemed to be a significantly larger amount of oak wood than birch wood, so we decided to make our house out of birch, and the other two houses out of oak.

Suddenly, a finger tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw Johnathan behind me.

"Bro, we're done."

"Oh, good. So, who are you with?"

"I'll be with Daniel."

I immediately knew who the next pair would be.

"So you guys are going to partner with the person I assigned you guys to for the wood and stone collecting task?" I asked.

They all nodded.

"Okay, fine by me. So, since I'm the leader, I decided my house would have to be more distinguishable."

Everyone rolled their eyes. I pretended that I didn't see them and continued.

"Since I realized that there were more oak wood than birch, I decided that my house would be made of birch. Any objections?"

It felt like everyone wanted to say something, but it seemed as if they changed their minds, because they said nothing and just motioned me to continue.

"So yeah, I have two chests over there." I motioned at the two chests next to me. "The one on the left is oak, the one on the right is birch. Help yourselves!"

While the four went over to grab some oak logs, I went over to the chest on the right and grabbed a few stacks of birch wood. I went over to a crafting table.

Then I realised that I didn't know how to craft.

I stared at the crafting grid. Three by three. Same as usual. I grabbed one log, and cautiously placed onto one of the squares.

Immediately, the log shrank to fit into the space the grid provided. I gasped. I waited a bit to see what would happen.

Unfortunately, nothing did.

That was when I noticed a little green book attached to the side of the crafting table. I took it off and read the cover.

_**The Beginner's Handbook to a Crafting Table**_

_**Crafting recipes included**_

I opened the book and read the front page.

_How to use a crafting table:_

_Place the required objects into the crafting grid. Ensure that the positions of the items are correctly placed. The items should shrink when placed to fit the grid space._

_Double tap the crafting table lightly. _

_The desired item should appear floating above the crafting grid. If more items were placed on the crafting grid, such as two recipes worth of an iron pickaxe, two iron pickaxes will appear. It is of the user's wish to take them all, or leave them. Any items left will immediately convert back into the items it is composed of._

_Any leftover items will remain at the crafting grid. It is of the user's wish to take them, or leave them._

I flipped to the next page.

_Crafting Recipes_

I immediately closed the book. I didn't need to read crafting recipes. All I needed for now was how to operate the crafting table. I put the book down and double tapped the crafting table.

Immediately, the birch log disappeared into a puff of white smoke, and as it cleared out, four birch planks floated in its place. I grabbed them, and repeated the process until almost all the logs were turned into planks. I ordered Samuel to be lookout, because honestly, I didn't trust him with anything that involves construction. At least he has a loud voice.

I started making the general outline of the house, since I already had plans of how the house would look like in my head. I worked up to make the walls, then made a door and put it down. I then started working on the interior. I decided that firstly, I would make a bedroom. I once again made the general outline of the bedroom, until I realized something.

We had no wool.

For a moment, I thought about killing a sheep for its wool, but I brushed aside the thought. I knew I didn't want to commit murder on an innocent animal, when there was a less brutal method that could be used to obtain the fluffy material they grew. I quickly rushed out of my incomplete house and opened the chest with the iron. I went over to the crafting table and placed two ingots in a diagonal fashion, then double tapped the table.

Immediately, the ingots fused, disappearing into a cloud of smoke. When the smoke disappeared, I took the pair of shears floating on the crafting table, and took a look around.

Very conveniently, three sheep were standing by themselves, staring into the distance, without a worry in the world. I approached them, trying my best not to scare them. When I stood next to a sheep, it looked at me, staring into my eyes. I took out the shears, then stopped.

I didn't know how to shear.

The shears seemed to be in an open position at all times, and I had to squeeze them to make the clips close. Cautiously, I positioned the shears, and clipped a bit of wool on the sheep's side.

Immediately, three blocks of wool popped off the sheep's body. I almost screamed in shock, but stopped myself in time as to not scare the flock away. I picked up the wool blocks. They were very fluffy and soft, but smell like sheep. No surprise there.

I sheared the other two sheep, and in the end, I walked back home with eight blocks of wool. On my way back, I picked three dandelions and three roses to turn them into dye. I walked over to Samuel.

"Hey, do you mind having a yellow bed?" I asked.

His eyes widened in horror.

"Yellow? I HATE yellow! What about blue? I want a BLUE bed, not a yellow one!" he shouted.

"Well, suck it up, there aren't any blue orchids nor Lapis Lazuli anywhere near here. So unless you want to go exploring a thousand blocks away to find a swamp, or go mining to the depths to find some Lapis, you will either do as I say, or go find another flower somewhere near our house!"

He huffed in frustration.

"FINE!"

Then he stomped off into the distance, sword in hand and a grouchy look on his face.

I blinked, then sighed. At least I turned on Keep Inventory. If he did die, which he most likely would, he would respawn close to our houses. I planted the dandelions into the ground, and held the roses in my hand. I pounded them repeatedly until they were nothing but red mush. Perfect for a dye. They even smelt good.

I dyed three wool blocks with the three rose red dyes on the crafting table because I was too lazy to do it with my hands. I made myself a bed, and walked back to my house. I placed the bed down, and finished making the roof for my bedroom. By the time I was finished, it was getting very dark. I got some coal and some sticks, then made myself a bunch of torches. I placed them evenly inside the bedroom, some in the empty spaces in my unfinished house, and then some evenly around my house. The others seemed to be doing the same thing as well. Fred and Marcus's house seemed to be almost finished, with only holes in the walls for windows and doors. Daniel and Johnathan's house was about half done, with no roof and missing walls. I clapped my hands together to signal everyone to finish up, but accidently opened the command console. I dismissed it, and called out to them instead.

"Okay, guys! That's it for today! Do you all have beds?"

They all nodded, which surprised me. They seemed to be more productive than me, in terms of getting stuff done and not wasting time.

"I see you all put down torches, which is good! I think it's about time that we –"

Samuel suddenly appeared out of thin air in front of me. He was holding what seemed to be a whole bouquet of blue orchids.

"So, you actually found a swamp?" I asked.

"Yeah! It's actually not that far away! Just go into the forest, walk straight for a bit, then boom! Swamp!"

I patted him on the back.

"Well done, then! But how did you -?"

"Oh, a skeleton killed me."

"Oh, okay. So while I tell everyone what to do, go make yourself a bed. Crush three of the blue orchids into dye, craft the dyes with three wool blocks, and then make a bed. If you forgot how to make one, just read the crafting manual. Got it?"

Samuel nodded. I gave him three wool blocks and three birch planks. He took them and then trotted off to the crafting table.

"Okay, anyway, yeah! I think it's time to sleep! Go make yourselves some doors, then go to bed. No excuses. Goodnight!"

I was just about to open the door, when Fred stopped me.

"Hey, Ben, mind if I have six birch planks?"

"Why?"

"Uh well, you see, you know how oak doors have, you know, holes in them?"

"Okay?"

Fred took a deep breath.

"I want a door that doesn't have holes in them."

I suppressed the urge to laugh.

"Why? You scared?"

Fred punched me on the arm.

"Just give me the planks, dammit!"

I gave him six birch planks, and entered my house. I was just about to open the door to my bedroom, when the front door burst open. Samuel came rushing in, panting.

"There were zombies outside! I managed to make my bed, though!"

I gasped.

"Quick, get in! Close the door!"

"But they'll –"

"Just do as I say!"

He quickly rushed in, then slammed the door shut. A second later, the sound of zombies groaning and fists banging against the door echoed through the house. Samuel whimpered.

"Come on. Zombies are too stupid to open doors. They think that repeatedly banging on doors will open them. But in Minecraft, wooden doors will never open without fully turning the handle."

"Are you sure?"

I wasn't sure to be honest, but I didn't want Samuel to freak out, so I nodded instead.

"I'm a hundred percent sure. In the situation we're in, there's something I like to call Minecraft magic," I told him as we went into the bedroom and closed the door behind us. "Everything in this world has Minecraft magic in it, including us. How do you think we can open inventories, or punch down trees?"

I put down Samuel's bed, which had a nice aroma to it. I took off my shoes, which were a part of my Minecraft skin, but now that I was an actual Minecraft character, I could take off clothing. I took off my shirt, and put it on a wooden bench I put in while building my bedroom. Samuel did the same, but didn't take off his shirt.

"Don't worry about the zombies. They'll get bored after a moment or two, and will walk off to do whatever they do. Don't worry about them. Just go to sleep. Tomorrow's a busy day."

I climbed into my bed, pulled the sheets over my body and snuggled into my pillow. The pillow, the sheet and the mattress were so soft and warm that I wished that I could never leave the bed ever again. The pillow, sheet and mattress smelt softly of roses, it's soothing, sweet smell drifting me off to sleep. Samuel did the same, also seeming to enjoy the comfort of his new bed. I opened one eye and smiled.

"Goodnight, Samuel," I muttered out.

"Goodnight, Benjamin," replied Samuel.

Then we both fell asleep, the world of dreams enveloping us for the night.

**Author's End note: Wow! This chapter not only took longer than expected, but it was five times longer than expected! So yeah, apologies for the late update, I'll try to update more sooner from now on. Next chapter will be about the guys finishing off construction, and they'll probably go exploring or some other cool stuff.**

**As always, thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye!**


	5. Chapter 5: Going places

**Author's Start note: And here we are with Chapter 5! Also, boy oh boy, 1.14 is now out for all to enjoy! What with village revamps, item and mob re-textures and especially pandas, this is yet to be one of the best updates yet (in my opinion)! From this chapter onwards, I'll try to make things 1.14-ish, like villagers' reskins, etc. Anyway, the six boys are **_**mine**_**, I mean, belong to me, all Minecraft characters to Mojang, and enjoy!**

**Chapter 5: Going places**

I woke up to a dull banging noise coming from somewhere close to my front door. Not being much of a morning person, I pressed my pillow against my ears and tried to go back to sleep. Despite that, the banging noise continued, but louder this time. The racket started to rouse Samuel, who was now rolling around in his bed, also trying to muffle the banging noise. Eventually, the unmistakable noise of a door being slammed open echoed inside my house. Both Samuel and I sat up in our beds, shocked. I picked up my sword that I left under my bed and braced myself. Samuel, being the type of person he was, hid under his sheets, shivering.

Whoever burst into my house seemed to be coming for our bedroom, so I got out of bed, posed heroically and readied myself for serious combat.

So as soon as the bedroom door burst open, I dashed forward and started to slash at the being that stood at the door. Cracks sounded repeatedly as I swung my stone sword at the thing that burst into my house. Suddenly, I was kicked off my feet, and I fell over and landed on my back. I looked up and saw –

"FRED?" I exclaimed in shock.

There he was, clutching the left side of his face. Blood was dripping from between his fingers. His shirt also had a ton of tears where I slashed him, and blood was dripping from the cuts seen underneath his shirt. He was obviously in a lot of pain, judging by the way he was yelling every single swear word that he knew.

After he was done verbally venting his pain, he glared at me with his right eye.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" he screamed.

"Sorry, I thought you were –"

"Thought I was WHAT? The doll from Kick the Buddy? A mannequin used for samurai training? A piece of fruit and you're the Fruit Ninja? WHY DID YOU JUST RANDOMLY CUT ME UP LIKE THIS?"

"Sorry, man, I thought you were a zombie or something!"

"And what if I was? If there was a zombie, why do you need to go ribbon dancing with your sword? ZOMBIES ARE FRICKING WEAK AS! YOU DON'T NEED TO- !"

"STOP SHOUTING! I'm trying to sleep!"

We all turned to look at Samuel, who was staring grumpily at us.

"SHUT THE HELL UP! IT'S ALREADY MORNING! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, SLEEP UNTIL AFTERNOON? GET YOUR A- "

"WHY ARE YOU ALL YELLING?"

We all turned to look at the door. Johnathan and Marcus were standing at the door. It was evident that they just woke up, judging by their groggy expressions and constant yawning.

Fred pointed at me with a shaking finger.

"THIS GUY RIGHT HERE JUST –"

"STOP YELLING!"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU YELLING?"

"WHY ARE YOU YELLING, THEN?"

"STOP YELLING YOU TWO!"

"DON'T TELL US TO STOP YELLING WHEN YOU'RE YELLING!"

"BRO, JUST STOP YELLING AND –"

"YOU'RE YELLING YOURSELF, YOU HYPOCRITE!"

"SO ARE YOU!"

"WHY ARE WE ALL HYPOCRTIES?"

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH US? WHY ARE WE DOING THI –"

"**SHUT UP**!"

We all stopped our yelling session and turned to the bright blue bed. Samuel was wearing the same furious expression that he wore when he respawned after Fred killed him.

"All of you, stop yelling! Please, try to reason with each other! But if you guys aren't going to listen to me and yell anyway, do you guys mind if yell outside?"

We all looked at each other. We shrugged, then went outside, Fred being the last to exit. He glared at Samuel before slamming the door shut.

We all looked at each other again.

I took a deep breath.

"So, what happened was that I accidently attacked him, thinking he was a zombie, since he was, you know, banging on the door and stuff."

Fred snorted.

"You absolute moron. Is that how you're going to act every single time you see a zombie?"

"Uh, probably, yeah."

Fred sighed.

"Urgh, whatever. Just give me some food. I'm starving."

I gasped.

"Wait. None of us ate anything ever since we came here, didn't we?"

Everyone nodded.

"Oh, geez. Well, I'm sure Fred and Marcus has some apples from their wood collecting session. Do you have some?"

Marcus opened his inventory and took out five apples. He handed one to me, and handed another one to Johnathan.

"Thanks," I mumbled as I munched on the fruit.

Marcus nodded, and tiptoed over to my bedroom. He opened the door quietly, placed an apple on the bench next to Samuel's bed, and tiptoed out, silently closing the door behind him.

As Fred took the final bite out of his apple, his injuries started to heal. The cuts started closing up, and the large slashes on his chest started to close as well, the tears in his clothes mending themselves in the process.

About half a minute later, Fred was back to his normal state. He nodded in realization.

"Automatic healing," he muttered, as he brushed his fingers over where his wounds used to be. "Once you're on over nine hunger bars, your body starts healing itself."

"Of course," I said.

"Bro, that's amazing," marveled Johnathan.

"Very nifty, if I do say so myself," stated Marcus.

Fred didn't say anything. He just stood there, looking at his own body in wonder.

The sound of a door opening behind us interrupted our gawking at Fred's newly healed body. We turned around to see Samuel, rubbing his eyes with his left hand and holding Marcus's apple in the other.

"Morning," he yawned. He took a big bite out of the apple and walked towards us.

"So, what were you guys looking at?" he mumbled still half asleep.

"Nothing, just my amazing body," smirked Fred. "So, do you want to know why I burst into your house some time ago?"

"Go ahead."

"Well, you see, I'm the kind of guy who wakes up early in the morning. So I woke up at some time around sunrise. I went in the direction of the 'forest', occasionally having to stop to kill some monsters, you know. I kept going, until I found something."

"Found what?" I asked. Fred took a deep breath.

"A village."

We all gasped.

"A VILLAGE?"

Fred nodded with a smug expression on his face.

"Uh huh. You should all thank me."

I sighed, then thanked him. So did everyone else. After we all congratulated Fred on his discovery, I addressed everyone.

"Alright, guys. First things first. Where's Daniel?"

"Oh, he said that he was going to go on a walk," piped Johnathan.

"Wait, how?" I asked.

"He wrote it on a piece of paper and put it on my bench," explained Johnathan.

Daniel must have been very productive to already have access to sugar canes for paper and some sort of way to write things.

"Oh, okay then. Now, all of you, I want you to finish off building, and –"

"We already did."

I paused, then ran outside my house and looked around. Sure enough, two completely finished houses stood before me, along with a fence surrounding our piece of land. I rushed back in.

"Who put the fence around?"

Marcus smiled meekly.

"I did."

I pulled him into a headlock and noogied him.

"Great job, man!"

Marcus chuckled as I let him go. I looked around at everyone.

"Now, I want you all to pack yourselves some food, tools and weapons."

"Why?"

"Cause we're going exploring. To the village. Fred, you lead the way."

Everyone except me and Samuel left to pack things. I took my swords and went outside.

"Hey, do any of you have any food?"

Fred chucked some sweet berries at me.

"Aw, sweet! Where'd you get them?"

"Oh, in a taiga forest somewhere behind our houses."

I munched on the berries, sharing some with Samuel. They were really sweet, with a little touch of sourness. After I ate every single last berry, I tossed the stripped branch away. Soon, everyone met up at the gate in the fence. I pushed Fred to the front.

"Lead the way."

So we marched on. On and on and on. Every now and then, we stopped to finish off a stray creeper, or in Samuel's case, pick some interesting flowers, but other than that, we didn't stop walking. Eventually, after what seemed like a half hour of walking, we saw the top of one of the villagers' houses across the tops of the trees. It looked like a plains village by the looks of it.

"Woah! A village!" Samuel awed. He walked forwards to get a closer look.

Then he fell off the edge.

"SAMUEL!" I screamed. We all rushed to the edge of the cliff, only to see, to our relief, our companion splash into a river below, and bob up and down in the water. We all looked at each other. We grinned.

"Cannonball!" Fred yelled as he jumped off the cliff into the river. Marcus shrugged as he dived off the edge, did a somersault midair and splashed into the river. I peered over, and saw the guys swimming around. It looked fun, so I decided to –

Johnathan walked up to me and kicked me in the hiney, causing me to toppled over and fall off the edge. I looked up and saw Johnathan cannonballing off the cliff as well. We splashed into the river, and I swam down under the surface and took a look.

It was beautiful. There were salmon peacefully swimming around, with bit of sea grass swaying smoothly. A squid swam around, its tentacles propelling it forward. The –

Fred grabbed me by the back of the shirt and yanked me up.

"Alright, leader, there's no time to be admiring the wonders of the river. Come on, there's a village to explore, and villagers to greet!"

I pulled myself onto the sandy shore, and shook myself dry like a dog. It surprisingly worked! Everyone did the same, and we walked towards a plot of crops. I followed behind Fred, but he pushed me to the front.

"Leader first," he whispered.

A farmer with bright green eyes stopped harvesting the crops from the plot and turned his head to look at me. He was wearing a straw hat, as well as brown robes and grey boots. I smiled nervously and waved back. The villager smiled back and straightened up.

"Hello, travelers! Welcome to our village! Are you new here?"

"Uh, yes! My name is Benjamin. This is Fred ("Wassup?"), Samuel ("Hello!"), Marcus ("How do you do?") and Johnathan ("Bro, your nose is _big_!")."

The farmer glared at Johnathan.

"We have no choice on how we look like. Our ancestors had big noses, which is why we have big noses. Please don't talk about them."

The farmer turned back to me.

"Anyway, yes! Welcome! My name is Joe. Would you like to go meet our King?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Wait. Villagers have kings?"

"Oh, yes," replied Joe. "A wandering traveler stumbled across our village not so long ago. He was very weak, so we took him to Phineas the cleric."

He motioned towards a villager who was carrying a brewing stand out of his house, and dunking it in a cauldron. He wore a deep purple apron, as well as a cloak with what looked like a creeper's face on it. He looked at us and merely nodded.

"So Phineas, being the amazing villager he was, and the village medic, gave him a Potion of Regeneration. But you see, we were all very excited, because we had a village prophecy saying that a human will stumble into our village, be healed up by the village cleric, then lead and protect our village. He is currently still under treatment from Phineas."

He nodded towards a little cottage, where a whole crowd of villagers were peering into the window. It looked like a zombie apocalypse, and the person inside the cottage was the last living man. I tapped Joe on the shoulder.

"Could I have a look at the prophecy, please?"

"Oh! Yes, follow me, then."

He walked over to a house somewhere near the well, and knocked on the door. A face peered out of the window.

"Who goes there?"

"It's me, dad! Joe!"

"Oh, okay."

The door opened, and Joe started whispering with the villager who seemed to be Joe's dad that opened the door. Joe's dad, who looked very old, nodded, and walked over to a chest. He opened it, and took out a book with golden edges. He passed it to Joe, who thanked him, hugged him and walked out.

"Here you go! The prophecy!"

I opened the book, and the other guys crowded around me to read.

_**The Village Prophecy**_

_There once was a time, when villages were safe. A peaceful haven for all of villager-kind. A place villagers could call home. Their daily routines and their daily gossip was done so without a worry in the world. But all of a sudden, one fine day, the villager lookout spotted a heavily wounded figure limping towards the village. The lookout ever so wanted to warn his fellow villagers, but the figure, who turned out to be a human, held out a hand as a sign that he came in peace. The man yelled out to the lookout to warn all the villagers that a crowd of enemies would soon come and turn their lives into misery. Slaughter every man, woman and child in the village. He told the lookout to evacuate all villagers from the village and into a safe place. Those were his last words before he collapsed onto the packed dirt._

_The lookout knew that the man wasn't lying. He climbed down and ran to the well. He struck the bell three times with a three second interval between each strike. The villagers knew from the peals of the bell that something was wrong. Three bells with the intervals meant emergency. All the villagers stopped what they were doing and ran to the meeting point at the well._

_The lookout told the villagers what the man told him, and the effect was immediate. Everyone panicked, children started crying, and wails of despair filled the air. The lookout told them to pack whatever valuables they had, and to meet at the well again. They did as they were told, and the village's Iron Golem was given instructions to do as much as it could do to protect the village from whatever enemy came to raid the town._

_Once everyone met up once more, the village's cleric suggested bringing the man with them. At the words, the man, who seemed to be on the brink of death but still heard the plans, told the villagers weakly to go on without him and to save themselves.. The cleric, who was a kind and caring soul, refused to leave an injured man to die. But at that moment, a deep horn sounded in the distance. At the hill that stood a mile away from the village, pillagers, with their deadly crossbows, came running at the village. The man, once more, told the villagers to go and save themselves. At that moment, the cleric knew that if he attempted to save the man, both would perish at the arrows of the pillagers, so he apologized to the man for not saving him, and ran off with his fellow people. _

_As the villagers ran for their lives, a farmer looked back, only to see the man being stabbed in the head by an arrow. The Iron Golem did its duty, and fought valiantly. But it was soon outnumbered, and the farmer witnessed its last step as it collapsed onto the floor and disappeared into a puff of smoke. The farmer, unwilling to see the destruction of his former home, turned around and ran off with the other villagers._

_It was fortunate that all the villagers managed to evacuate to safety in a medium sized cave. Fortunately, no monsters resided in the cave, so lanterns and torches were placed down, and the entrance was sealed off. For an entire week, they had to stay in the cold, hard cave. Food was limited, and there were many mouths to feed. Every attempt to sneak back to the village to either get more supplies or see if the raid was over was foiled by illagers. When the fiends eventually decided to leave, the villagers returned to the place they once called home. Crops were uprooted, windows were smashed, walls were broken and the well that once stood in the centre of the village was destroyed, water leaking out of the broken sides like tears. Reconstruction took place, and before long, villagers lived a peaceful, but grimmer, life. Any humans that even dared to come near the village were pushed away, as now, any human seen near their humble town was now considered a __**Bad Omen**__._

I closed the book and looked at Joe.

"But Joe, we're humans. Why didn't you shoo _us _away?"

"Well, you see, Benjamin, there is, in fact, a _second _part to the prophecy. That should explain everything else."

I nodded.

"Okay. Also, the cleric in the story. Is that -?"

Joe nodded.

"Phineas was never the same again."

Samuel gasped.

"From that day onward, Phineas felt that he was responsible for the man's death. He feels that he should've saved the man as soon as he heard of him, and taken him to safety with us. Now of course, we all tell him that it's not true, and the man would've died anyway, but Phin would give us 'the Look'. Often a sign that we should back off and never mention the man ever again."

"I understand. Also, the farmer –"

"Was me, yes. I had nightmares for a solid month after that day. Always dream of the man getting stabbed, rest his soul. Seeing also poor Franklin getting murdered like that, I, I,"

Joe wiped his eyes with his sleeves. I walked over and softly patted him on the shoulder.

"Thank you. Anyway, yes, there's a second part to the prophecy. Would you like to read it now, or would you like to visit the King?"

I turned to the others.

"What do you guys think?"

Samuel put his arms up.

"I want to see the king!"

Fred murmured in agreement, and Marcus nodded.

"I would like to see what a villager king would look like."

Johnathan shrugged, which I took as a 'yes'.

I turned to Joe, and nodded.

"Take me to the king, please."

Joe walked towards the house with the crowd of villagers. Upon reaching the door, he turned to the other villagers.

"Shoo, all of you! Go do your jobs! Leave the king to rest, he needs it!"

The villagers grumbled, and walked away to their work stations and did what they had to do. Some looked at us, and greeted us with big smiles on their faces. Once villager child ran off and hid behind a hay bale, and peeked around the edge to look at us. Joe turned to us and whispered very softly,

"Now, be very quiet. The king might not be very well."

He opened the door, and walked in.

"Good day, Phineas! How is the king?" Joe whispered.

Phineas looked at us for a second, then turned back to Joe.

"His health has improved, compared to the state he was in when he arrived."

He nodded towards about half a dozen bloodstained arrows lying on a wooden bench. Joe nodded slowly.

I looked over at the bed that lay in the corner of the room, and gasped. So did everyone else. The person who lay in the bed stirred at the sounds we made, and opened his eyes. He looked around the room, and eventually, his eyes settled on us. They widened in shock. His mouth opened. In a barely audible tone, he croaked,

"Oh my God."

**Author's End note: And there we have chapter 5! Apologies for the long wait. I know I said I'll try to update quicker, but, life can be unpredictable! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this super long chapter, and I'll see you in the next! Bye!**


	6. Chapter 6: Village Antics

**Author's Start note: Chapter 6! We will continue on from where we left off in the previous chapter! As a side not, I'm not sure if you noticed or not, but in the previous chapter, I wrote wells instead of fountains. Very not 1.14, I should say. Apologies. I hope you can overlook it. Anyway, without much further ado, six boys to me, Minecraft characters to Mojang, and off we go!**

**Chapter 6: Village Antics**

We all stood there, gawking at Daniel. He lay in the bed, his mouth open like a goldfish. Joe looked at us, then Daniel, then tapped me on the shoulder.

"Do you know the king, Benjamin?" he asked.

Before I could answer, Fred pushed me aside and grabbed Daniel by the collar.

"Listen here, Danny boy, you're one of the villagers now, are you? You're going to ditch us, are you?"

"Oh my God, Fred! I just stumbled across this village and then all the villagers started fussing over me. I didn't do anything!" Daniel replied.

Fred threw Daniel into the wall, a crack sounding as he made impact with the wall.

"You disgust me," retorted Fred.

I grabbed Fred by the shoulder and pushed him back. He glared at me.

"Don't you dare push me aga–"

"Don't YOU dare bullyrag people for no real reason again!" I yelled at him. Footsteps could be heard outside as villager children tried to peek through the window to see what was going on. I stomped over, ripped a piece of carpet from the floor and slapped it onto the windows. I stomped back.

"This traitor just –"

"I AM NOT A TRAITO –"

"SHUT UP, DANIEL! I GOT THIS! Daniel obviously went for a walk, as Johnathan told us. But he got injured while doing so, tried to come back, but went the other way by mistake and found this village. The villagers saw him as the fulfillment of their prophecy and took him in without hesitation. Is that correct?"

Daniel, Phineas and Joe nodded.

"There you have it. Is that enough for you, Fred?"

Fred, although he looked sour and grumpy for being proven wrong, nodded.

"Good. Now that that's settled, I think it's about time we read the next part to the prophecy. What do you guys think?"

Everyone replied with the same notion as 'yes', except for Fred, who just grumbled.

"Great! So, Joe, do you have the second part?"

"Yes, I do!" replied Joe. "I just have to pop down to Brian. I think he has it in his library."

Phineas reached out an arm to stop Joe.

"Joe, there's I don't think it's a good idea for them to –"

"Nonsense, Phin! It would be much better for know the full prophecy!"

"No, do you not remember tha –"

But the farmer had already rushed out the door.

As the door swung shut behind him, Daniel coughed to get our attention. We all turned to him.

"I know what the second part is about."

"You do?"

"Well, yeah. While I was healing up, Phineas brought me a bunch of books to read. One of them was the second part of the prophecy. He realised it, and quickly took it away and put it in that chest over there. So when he went out to get some more water for potions and stuff, I took it from the chest and read it."

We looked at each other. Why would Phineas not want him to know? We wondered if perhaps the man that died would be mentioned in the second part.

"Do you want to read it?"

I nodded. He reached over to the bench next to his bed and took a book that looked much like the book containing the first part did. He handed it to us.

"Have fun."

I opened the book and everyone crowded around me again.

_**The Village Prophecy: Part II**_

_It was a whole year since the terrible happenings of the raid occurred. The villagers were–_

Just as they were about to find out what the villagers were, the door banged open. We all turned to the door and saw Joe, out of breath and sweaty, leaning against the doorway, panting.

"I heard that Brian gave you the book. Do you have it?"

Phineas motioned towards us.

"They're reading it right now."

Joe blushed.

"Oh, okay then. Well, carry on!"

We looked at one another, shrugged, and then continued reading.

_The villagers were at last a happy and peaceful town once more. Daily routines were carried out without fail, jobs were done properly, children got to go play outside and a new Iron Golem was spawned in. All was well, until it happened again._

_Another man appeared._

_But he was not alone. With him were three dogs, all sporting orange collars, a horse, and a woman. Arrows stuck out from their backs, but they still advanced. The villagers, stricken with anxiety that another raid would start, all tried their best to scare the incomers away. Many yells of anger were thrown at them, and they all called the group a __**Bad Omen. **__But once the man and woman arrived with their pets, the man declared in a loud, clear voice that they come in peace. Then the woman uttered the fateful word of 'raid', but once she did, she did not stop talking. The man and woman ordered all the villagers to get into their houses, and to not come out until the coast was clear. Then, they got to work barricading the village as fast as they could. Once that was done, they got to work spawning in an Iron Golem on every side of the village. Once that was done, they tethered the horse to the village lamp, ordered their dogs to sit, and then put on armour on themselves._

_Then the horn sounded. The sound that indicated the start of the raid. Immediately, pillagers started appearing in the distance, all wielding crossbows. The two readied their weapons, the man wielding an enchanted diamond sword and the woman charging up her own enchanted crossbow. When the first pillager showed his face, the two ran forward to attack._

_They fought valiantly and strongly. They were determined to protect the village from harm. The Iron Golems lumbered forward and killed any Illager that dared to come into their range. The group punched and slashed and shot for almost half an hour. The man almost died at one point and a few of the Golems perished. But then as the last Illager was defeated, silence followed. The group stood there, panting. Once they caught their breaths, they collected all the loot the raid party dropped, walked to the village fountain, and rung the bell to signify the successful end of the raid._

_Villagers streamed out of their houses, and at once, the air was filled with yells of triumph and gratitude. They hoisted the two humans up and tossed them up and down, all shouting their thanks. Fireworks were lit as a celebratory decoration. As the two humans wandered around the village, villagers would throw items at them as gifts of gratitude, and they would all discount their prices for their trades. _

_Eventually, the time came for the two to leave for their home. The villagers all wanted to make the two king and queen, but they declined the offer for the time being, stating that when they come back, they might change their mind. As the two mounted their horse and the dogs were beside them, the villagers all stood there to bid farewell to the duo. As the two waved goodbye to the villagers and rode off into the sunset, they all saluted for their __**Heroes of the Village**__. _

_And to this day, we are still waiting for our heroes to return back to our town, and claim their rightful position within us. And when they do come back, we will make sure that they do____become our leader, and __**never leave us again**__._

We closed the book, then placed it back on the bench. I faced the two villagers in the room.

"Are you guys really going to keep us here forever?"

The two villagers looked at each other with worried looks on their faces. They turned back to us.

"Well?"

Joe took a step forward and cleared his throat.

"Look, this prophecy was made two years ago. We changed our minds. We even discussed about it, and we all agreed to change our minds about it. We took it to Brian to have it changed, but the price he charged for it was too high. I mean, TEN EMERALDS! No one's THAT rich! You can go ask the villagers outside. They'll tell you."

I walked out of the house, with the others following behind me. I walked up to a Nitwit that was peering into the window of the villager church. I tapped him on the shoulder.

"Uh, excuse me, could I –"

"Sh! Be quiet! I'm busy!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Doing what?"

"Eavesdropping."

I face palmed.

"That's not a real job! You're just a –"

"Nitwit! Yeah, yeah, that's what they all call me. 'Hey Nitwit? Watcha doing? Nothing' or 'Oi Nitwit! You cleaned your head of nits today?' I don't even have hair! No one even bothers to call me by my real name! No one ever said things like 'Good morning, Jeffrey!' or 'How was your day, Jeff?' It's not my fault I'm a Nitwit! I was spawned as a Nitwit! I tried to get a job, every single job available in this village! But guess what they all say? 'You can't apply for a job.' And I ask why. And what do they say? 'Because you're a Nitwit.' Why does everyone hate me for being something I can't help being?"

Jeffrey buried his face into his hands and sobbed loudly. Joe walked up to him and patted him on the back.

"There, there. Not everyone hates you."

Jeffrey stopped sobbing and glowered at Joe.

"Lies! Untrue phrases! Dishonest remarks! Then why do the village children keep singing that song whenever I walk by?"

I was just about to ask what the song was when a small group of villager children, no more than six, ran past and sang at the top of their lungs:

"_Nitwit! Nitwit! The village Nitwit!_

_What is he doing today?_

_Nothing as usual!_

_He tries to be useful!_

_But nobody likes him anyway!"_

All of a sudden, Fred rushed over to them brandishing a stick and grabbed one of the children. He sat down, bent the child over his thighs and spanked him on the bottom with the stick

We all stood there, including Jeffrey, gawking as Fred stood up, dropped the child onto the floor and boomed at the rest,

"WHO'S NEXT?"

The remaining villager children ran off screaming, wailing for their mothers. The one who got spanked stood there, clutching his buttocks and sobbing quietly to himself. Fred walked over to him, casting a shadow over the child. He looked up, and upon seeing Fred's furious face, squealed like a pig and scampered off.

Fred chucked his stick away and faced the rest of us.

"And THAT," he spoke in a loud voice, "is how you discipline your children."

In my honest opinion, I completely disagreed with his violent method of getting kids to behave, but I just kept my mouth shut and nodded slightly like the rest of us did. We were all too frightened at the moment at the sudden act of brutality we just witnessed.

Fred walked up to Jeffrey and patted him on the shoulder.

"It's okay, man. If those kids, or ANYONE, for that matter, even TRIES to make fun of you, I'll make sure to beat the [bleep] out of them."

A couple of villagers nearby gasped at Fred's use of foul language. He spun around and faced the villagers.

"Did you all just gasp?"

One of the villagers stepped over and said,

"You just said the 's' word!"

The villagers all nodded.

"Profanity is not allowed in our peaceful town."

"Oh, yeah? Well, there isn't any peace in this village if you guys keep bullying Jeffrey like this."

"Who's Jeffrey? Are you talking about the Nitwit?"

Fred stomped over to a plot of land, uprooted a carrot, took out a piece of flint from his inventory and sharpened the carrot's end. After he was finished, he stomped over to the villager who said 'Nitwit', holding out the now-sharp carrot.

The villager screamed in horror, and rushed into his house about ten blocks away and shut the door. Upon reaching the door, Fred cackled evilly and stabbed the carrot into the door. A loud crunching noise sounded, and a squeal emitted from somewhere inside the house. Fred equipped an iron axe, raised it high, and brought it down onto the door. He repeated it several times, each time making the villager inside shriek in fear. Eventually, when there was a reasonably large hole in the door, Fred put the axe down and peeped though the hole.

"Here's FREDDIE!"

The villager inside howled in horror as Fred grabbed the door by the hole, and using the brutal strength I never knew he possessed, tore the door off its hinges and stomped inside.

From outside, all we could hear from the moment Fred stomped into the house were sounds of punching, with the occasional crunch and thud. After about half a minute or so, Fred stomped out, huffing and puffing. Immediately, Phineas ran into the house, a golden apple and a Potion of Regeneration in his hands. I faced Fred.

"Why did you beat the villager into pulp?"

"Because he called Jeff a Nitwit! He told you how heartbreaking it is for him to be called that! He's probably going through depression for all we know! We need to put an end to it!"

"I know that! But why do we have to resort to violence? Why can't we just have a gathering and talk the villagers out of mistreating Jeffrey?"

Fred opened his mouth, then paused. He sighed.

"Oh, all right."

"Good. Now go apologise to the villager you just beat up."

Fred walked over to the house and walked up the steps. He reached the doorway when the villager that got beat up shrieked in horror. We could hear Phineas telling Fred to go away, and so, Fred walked out looking very glum. He walked up to me and was about to say something when I cut him off.

"You not only physically scarred him, but you also mentally scarred him. Great. Do you now see the consequences of your violent and impulsive actions?"

"But he deserved it!"

I went over to the plot, pulled out a handful of wheat and slapped him across the face with it. While he was stunned, I grabbed some wet dirt from the plot and slapped it onto his face. Then I went behind him, grabbed his head and shoved it face first into the line of water in the plot. When Fred pulled his head out of the water, spluttering and gasping, he turned to me.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?"

"Because you deserved it."

Fred was visibly shaking with rage, but he didn't say anything. He just stood there, his face red and dripping.

"Now, I think it's about time we held a gathering. Come with me, guys."

I walked over to the fountain that stood at the heart of the village. I struck the bell, which caught everyone's attention. They all stopped what they were doing and walked over to us. Once everyone, including the village's Iron Golem, was gathered and silent, I began talking.

"Good afternoon, villagers! My name is Benjamin, and these are my faithful comrades. Samuel ("Hello!"), Fred ("Hmph."), Johnathan ("What's up, bros?"), Marcus (Pleased to meet you all.") and Daniel ("Hi, guys.)."

When I mentioned Daniel's name, all the villagers, except Joe and Phineas, shouted,

"ALL HAIL KING DANIEL!"

I looked over at Daniel, who was blushing like mad. I decided to continue.

"Anyway, I have brought you all here to talk to all of you about something you are doing wrong. Which is why I want all of you to treat Jeffrey the way you would treat others!"

The air was immediately filled with murmurs of 'Who's Jeffrey?' and 'Why is he motioning towards the Nitwit?'. I could see Fred trying his very best to restrain himself from flying towards the crowd and beating everyone up. I decided to continue quickly before Fred lost control of himself.

"Yes, the villager you are all murmuring about is called Jeffrey! There will be no more calling him Nitwit, and singing insulting songs at him, or just generally treating him as a piece of scum! He is a villager, like all of you! He isn't someone you should all ignore and consider unworthy and useless! After all, how would YOU feel if you were bullied about something you couldn't help? Now, I want all of you, from now on, treat Jeffrey here with respect. He will no longer be the Nitwit in your minds! From now on, he will try his very best to do what he can to help anyone in need of assistance. I want all of you to call him by his real name! Just treat him like you would treat your own friends. Who's with me?"

Silence fell as soon as I finished talking. All the villagers stared at me, then at one another, then back at me.

"Anyone?"

The villagers started murmuring within each other, with the occasional nodding of heads. After about ten seconds of said activity, a villager with a very familiar face, stepped up to me. I then recognized him as Joe's father, the man who handed his son the first part of the Village Prophecy.

"Young man, we have discussed among ourselves. We have decided to do as you have asked us to do."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"On one condition."

I stopped sighing, and looked at him.

"And what's that?"

Joe's father closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then said,

"You and your comrades, especially King Daniel, stays with us forever."

I gasped. I turned to Joe, who wore a look of shock on his face. He stepped towards his father.

"Dad! Jeffrey's a villager like us! He told us that he tries to get employed, but no one wants him because he was spawned as the village Nitwit. He couldn't choose who he was, dad! It's not his fault. Besides, Jeff's really useful! Remember when I was five, and I couldn't reach the apple in the tree? And I spent ten minutes trying to get it?"

"Yes, son. You fell down the tree, didn't you?"

"Yes, yes, that's the one, dad! But guess who caught me? Jeffrey did! And he put me down on the floor, climbed up the tree and got the apple for me before you could say 'hay block'! He's very thoughtful, and efficient."

Joe's father had a look of thoughtfulness on his face. He turned back to the villagers and, from what I could hear, was recapping the story of Joe's apple mishap. Eventually, the villagers seemed to realise what kind of guy Jeffrey really was, because when Joe's father turned back to us, he said,

"Jeffrey, come here."

Jeffrey walked timidly to the crowd of villagers, and at once, he was enveloped in a warm group hug. I could see tears of joy dripping down Jeffrey's cheeks as more villagers joined in the hug.

Eventually, the group hug ended. Everyone separated, and some patted him on the back. I smiled at the wonderful sight before me. I knew that it would only take a speech to convince the villagers that Jeffrey wasn't a nice guy.

All of a sudden, somewhere over the hill, where the sun was visibly setting, I heard a commotion. I think everyone did, seeming as they all turned their heads towards the hill. Suddenly, a horn sounded somewhere over the hills. Everyone froze. I knew, and I was sure everyone else did, what it meant. I turned to Daniel.

"Daniel, those arrows that Phineas had to pull out of you. Please tell me they were from a skeleton."

Daniel grimaced, and refused to make eye contact with me. I grabbed him by the shoulders and made him face me.

"Daniel! Who shot you?"

He looked up into my panic-stricken eyes, and I could see the guilt in his.

"I killed it."

My blood froze.

"Killed who?"

Daniel took a deep breath, then replied,

"I killed the Illager captain."

**Author's End note: Oooh! Cliffhanger right there! To be continued in chapter 7. But for now, there's another chapter done, and I hope you enjoyed it! Now, about the cover image, I'm thinking about hand-drawing a brand new cover. I personally think the current one is a little trash, so I think it's about time to improve things a little. Once again, I jope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all in the next chapter. Bye!**


	7. Chapter 7: Familiar Encounters

**Author's Start note: And we are back at it again! Wow, this chapter was finished quicker than I thought! I guess it's time to find out what happens to the unfortunate village that has already suffered enough! I am working on the new cover image, which will be out sometime soon! Anyway, enough with that, the six boys are mine to keep, Minecraft stuff to Mojang, and let's a go!**

**Chapter 7: Familiar Encounters**

I let go of Daniel's shoulder. I knew that if we didn't act quickly, all these villagers would be finished. I turned to the villagers, who by now were all freaking out.

"Okay, panicking isn't going to get us anywhere! First of all, I want you all to get into your houses. NOW! I'll block up your doors with dirt or something so Illagers can't get in! Got it?"

The air was filled with mixtures of agreeing murmurs.

"Good! Now GO! Go, go, go!"

The crowd immediately dispersed, most of the female villagers, who all looked like regular villagers, but with long hair and two eyebrows, grabbing their children by the hands and running to their houses. I turned to the five guys and gave them each some dirt.

"Go block up the doors. Illagers are too dumb to break blocks."

Marcus stepped up to me.

"But Benjamin, do you not realise that –"

"It doesn't matter! Just do as you're told!"

"But –"

"GO!"

Marcus merely shook his head at me.

"Benjamin, listen to me. I'll make it quick. Do you not realise that this world, this Minecraft world, is more realistic now? Zombies can lunge, monsters die in usually one hit and villagers can speak English! Blocking up a door won't stop Illagers if they are aware of the presence of villagers inside the house!"

He was right. The raid party's one purpose was to raid and pillage the village. Kill all the villagers. Take their loot. Dirt wasn't going to stop them. Suddenly, I remembered what the villagers did when the village was raided the first time.

"The cave! They have to go hide in the cave! Guys, evacuate all the villagers to the cave!"

Johnathan merely pointed at the hill.

"It's too late, bro."

I could see the raid party advancing, and they were only a mere fifty or so blocks away. But I knew that if the villagers got out and ran as fast as possible now, there would be a small chance of survival for them. I struck the bell three times and yelled at the top of my voice

"VILLAGERS! GET OUT OF YOUR HOUSES NOW! RUN TO THE CAVE! NOW! GO, GO, GO! AND BLOCK THE ENTRANCE WHEN YOU GET THERE!"

At once, the doors to all the houses in the village burst open, and villagers started streaming out and running towards the big cave somewhere north to the village. I could hear the cries of "They're getting away!" and "Those villagers are mine!" coming from the oncoming hoard of Illagers. All of a sudden, four villagers separated themselves from the evacuating crowd and ran to us. I gasped.

"Joe? Phineas? Jeffrey? Joe's dad?"

Joe's dad held out a hand.

"Harry. Harry Bairnes."

I took his hand and shook it quickly.

"Uh, nice to meet you, Mr Bairnes."

"Oh, just call me Harry, my lad."

"Oh, okay then."

I turned to address the villagers before me.

"What are you all doing here?"

Jeffrey stepped forward.

"We want to help you."

"Are you crazy? You guys are the Illagers' number one target!"

Phineas stepped forward this time.

"We insist."

Joe piped up.

"We'll do what we can to help you."

Harry cleared his throat.

"Even if it means we die in the process."

I was about to say something, when Samuel came up and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Come on, Ben. They're willing to die for their village's sake. Come on, let them fight with us."

I sighed, before nodding.

"Fair enough. Now, do you have weapons?"

Joe held up an iron hoe, Harry a stone spade, Phineas a Splash Potion of Harming, but Jeffrey brought out nothing. Johnathan stepped towards him and passed him a birch door. I facepalmed.

"A door? Seriously?"

"Remember what Marcus told you, bro? This is _realistic_ Minecraft. And in real life, bro, you smash a door over someone's head. They die. Or get knocked out, at least. Besides, look, bro. Jeffrey can use the door as a shield as well! You get what I mean?"

I nodded at Johnathan's mini-talk about the combat side of doors.

"Okay then. Now, everybody ready?"

Suddenly, from somewhere behind us, we heard the unmistakable sound of zombies groaning.

"Ah, damn it. It's night."

Out of the blue, an arrow shot from within the raid party and barely missed Samuel's left ear. It whizzed past and went _thunk_ into Jeffrey's door. Suddenly, Daniel grabbed the arrow, pulled it out and loaded it into a crossbow of his own.

"Hey, where'd you get that?"

Daniel looked at me.

"How else do you think I got the Bad Omen?"

He aimed the crossbow at a pillager and shot. The arrow whizzed through the air and pierced the pillager in the head. The pillager screamed in pain and collapsed on the floor, disappearing into a puff of smoke. Daniel pumped the air with his fist.

"Headshot!"

A Ravager started making its way towards the fountain we were standing on. I was about to hit it with my lowly iron sword that I made earlier when Joes brushed past me, and with a howl of fury, swung his hoe down and plunged it straight into the beast's right eye.

The Ravager roared in agony, and stumbled around, being half-blind. The pillager riding it tried his very best to hold on, but eventually lost his grip and fell down, only to get trampled by the beast itself.

"Friendly fire," muttered Joe as he swung his hoe at an oncoming vindicator.

"Nice job, Joe!" I exclaimed as I my sword made contact with a pillager's arm. The pillager clutched his arm, dropping his loaded crossbow on the floor. I hastily picked it up, aimed the arrow head at the pillager and said, in my best Terminator voice,

"Hasta la vista, baby."

And I shot. The arrow implanted into the pillager's chest. He looked at the arrow in shock, and his gray skin paled to a lighter gray colour before collapsing. I took the arrow out of the pillager's chest and rummaged around inside his vest for any more arrows before he disappeared into a puff of smoke. I found three, so I pocketed them and started finishing off more pillagers with my new crossbow, fishing out arrows from the dead pillagers as I went. It wasn't until about ten minutes later that I looked around to see how everyone else was doing.

Marcus and Johnathan were finishing off a Ravager jockey, while Daniel was having a 1v1 with a vindicator. Fred was a whole different story. He was slashing and dashing, giving blows and niftily avoiding blows back. He was surrounded, yet, he was managing to survive. Samuel was fighting a whole group of zombies and spiders, but with the help of the village's Iron Golem. Harry, Jeffrey and Phineas were dealing with what looked like… witches and an evoker?

I looked over at the hill. There were more Illagers coming. That could only mean one thing.

The first wave was already over, and the raid was about to get more intense.

I looked back at the group of villagers fighting, and saw Jeffrey bonking a witch over the head with his door. Harry was hitting Vexes out of the air with his spade like they were tennis balls and he was Roger Federer playing for the tennis finals. Phineas was throwing harmful potions at the Illagers, occasionally having to move out of the way of the fangs the evoker was spawning. Slowly, but gradually, the number of Illagers went down, as fewer and fewer of them started appearing. I took a look around at everyone's progress when suddenly, I realized something horrible.

"JOE? JOE, WHERE ARE YOU?"

I looked around, and by the forest that stood behind the village, there he was, trying to fight his way out of a crowd of zombies. And it didn't take a genius to see that he was outnumbered surrounded. And the crowd of zombies were getting larger by the second, and the space Joe had to run around in was getting smaller by the second as well. It was clear that Joe was getting injured, and he was getting weaker, fast. He needed help.

I ran as fast as I could towards the zombies, occasionally having to dodge the arrows of pillagers and the blades of Vexes. I ran, picked up an iron axe that lay on the floor with my free hand, and let out a roar of fury, like Joe did.

I swung and sliced, and zombies lay dead here and there, pieces of decayed flesh laying at their place of death. I kept killing and chopping and slashing, until at last, only one zombie remained, so with one slash with my axe, the undead being's head dropped to the floor, before disappearing into a puff of smoke. I wiped my forehead with my sleeve and looked at Joe.

What I saw made my stomach lurch.

Joe lay there, with cuts and scratches all over his body. He looked barely conscious, and his robes were torn everywhere. His hoe lay at his side, battered but still in one piece. I ran to him and crouched down. His heavily ripped straw hat lay askew on his bald head.

"Joe! Are you okay? Speak to me!"

Joe opened one eye, and looked at me. He tried to say something, but he ended up coughing violently, specks of blood spraying out of his mouth. He then lay still, and closed his eye. He was still breathing, but he seemed to be in too much pain to be talking. Or anything. I turned around, only to see, Fred finishing off the last vindicator, Harry swatting the last of the Vexes, and Samuel stabbing a spider.

"PHINEAS! Please, come quick! Joe's badly injured!"

The cleric immediately rushed over to me, along with everyone else. The cave entrance that stood about ten blocks away was demolished, and a crowd of overjoyed villagers came rushing out towards us. Suddenly, their whoops of joy and victory ceased upon the sight of their fellow farmer.

Phineas felt Joe's forehead for a few seconds before feeling his chest. He grimaced.

"One health point. He's not going to make it."

"But how did you know he was on one health point?" asked Samuel.

"We clerics know things that others do not, young one. Joe's not going to make it. I'm sorry."

Harry burst into tears at the news of his son's state, and Jeffrey patted him on the back. Many sniffles and sobs could be heard from the other villagers. Suddenly, Joe's left arm twitched. Phineas gasped, and grabbed it. We could all see what Phineas was seeing.

Joe's fingers were slowly turning green.

"No," gasped Phineas. "No, no, it can't be."

The green was spreading, and soon, his whole hand was dark green. So was his other hand. Phineas desperately rummaged around in his cloak, looking for something that could help. Suddenly, he pulled out a bottle containing a bright red liquid.

"Just to make sure," muttered Phineas. He was nervous, judging by his visibly shaking hands as he opened the bottle and poured a drop into Joe's mouth. The effect was immediate. The farmer's face scrunched in pain instead of relaxing in relief of being healed.

"Is he?" asked Harry.

Phineas didn't answer, and just nodded grimly.

"The signs are clear. He is turning into a zombie."

Everyone gasped. I grabbed Phineas by the shoulder.

"But Phineas, the cure! Weakness and a Golden Apple! Don't you have it?"

Phineas merely looked at me.

"Benjamin, I have looked in every pocket in my robes looking for a Potion of Weakness and a Golden Apple. I currently own neither."

"But you can make it, can't you? Is the brewing stand in your house fueled?"

"Yes, it is."

"Good! Now, does anyone have eight gold ingots?"

The weapon smith stepped towards me and said in his deep voice,

"I do."

"Good, may I have them, please?"

"Sure."

I held out my hand.

"For a price of one emerald."

I was dumbfounded.

"What? Excuse me, your fellow villager is undergoing the process of becoming a zombie villager. I don't have time for paying. Besides, I just saved your village from a raid! Come on, this is for Joe!"

The weapon smith looked at me, then sighed.

"Okay, okay. But this is for Joe."

"Thank you."

I quickly took it the ingots, and I was just about to ask for an apple when Daniel tossed me one.

"Thanks, man."

I quickly ran to Phineas' house, and upon reaching it, I slammed open the door and rummaged around the house for a fermented spider eye and a water bottle. Luckily, I found the spider eye in one of the chest labelled 'Disgusting: Do not open'. The chest's inside reeked so much I almost passed out, but I closed it just in time. I crouched down at the brewing stand that stood in the center of the room, and placed the fermented spider eye on top of the blaze rod part. I found a chest labelled 'Glass bottles' and took one out. I rushed outside, scooped some water up from one of the plots and rushed back in. I placed the water bottle on one of the three stations and immediately set to work making the Golden Apple. Once that was done, I heard a familiar _glug glug glug_, which signaled the finishing of the potion. I grabbed the Potion of Weakness and the Golden Apple, and rushed back out the door.

Only to face utter chaos.

Villagers were running around, screaming as zombies lumbered after them, groaning, in large numbers. I could see Fred, Johnathan, Harry and Daniel help kill the zombies using everything they could. The air was filled with the shrieks of fear from the villagers, the groans from the zombies and the shouts from Fred and co. But there was something strange. The number of zombies in the area. I knew they spawned with a few others around them, but this was as if every single zombie in the world were called to the village. And why were there only zombies? Why were there no skeletons or creepers or spiders? It was like I was watching an episode of the Walking Dead. I looked around trying to look for the rest of the guys. I looked and looked, but I couldn't find them. Where were they? Were they dead.

Then I found them.

But something was not right. They seemed to be holding something down, as if the thing was going to fly up in the air if they let go. So I ran over to them, holding out the two things I just made. But when I almost reached them, Phineas turned his head to me and shouted,

"No, Benjamin! Get back! Don't come near! Don't let it see the potion and the Golden Apple!"

I could tell that the thing they were restraining was very dangerous. I could hear howls and screams of rage coming from it. I knew that Phineas told me to stay away from the thing for a good reason, but eventually, curiosity got the better of me. I sneaked up behind Samuel and peeked over his shoulder.

I immediately regretted doing it.

As soon as I did, the thing let out a roar of fury, and burst itself free from everyone who was holding onto it, making them yell in shock as they toppled backwards. Or, should I say him, because as soon as he stood up to face me, I could tell from the bloodshot red eyes, the straw hat and the iron hoe it was grasping in his dark green hands, that I was too late.

Joe was a zombie villager.

**Author's End note: Oh no! Joe's now a zombie! What will happen to him? Will he stay as a deranged, undead being? Will he get cured? Or even worse, will he perish to the blazing rays of sunlight, or to the blade of a sword? Find out next time on Mission: Minecraft! Bye!**


	8. Chapter 8: Saving an old friend

**Author's Start note: Chapter 8! This story came so far! But, as you may or may not know, it's not even close to the End (pun not intended). But anyway, onto the story! The six boys, and the villagers, I may add (Joe, Phineas, Jeffrey and Harry) belong to me, Minecraft characters to Mojang, and begin!**

Chapter 8: Saving an old friend

I screamed as Joe lunged towards me, swinging his hoe at the same time. I ducked out of the way when he swung his hoe towards my head, the farm tool missing my head by a few centimeters. I contemplated drawing my sword, but I remembered that I was dealing with my own friend, a friend who has been transformed into a monster, but not permanently. I ran for a house, occasionally having to dodge either a regular zombie or move out of the way of Joe's frenzied attacks. It was only after I reached the door when I turned around.

Just in time to see Joe raising his hoe to inflict a fatal blow.

There was a flash of silver, then a something brushed past me, a streak of crimson flying through the air as it did. I looked down, and there he was.

Samuel lay on the floor, clutching his chest, where blood was visibly seeping out from between his fingers. He was wincing in pain, his eyes shut tight. I looked up and saw the zombie farmer raise his hoe again.

I kicked Joe in the stomach, sending him flying backwards, letting out a roar of rage. I took the chance to pick up Samuel in a fireman's carry and run towards a certain villager that was currently ushering villagers back into the cave with Marcus.

"Phineas!" I called. The cleric turned his head to face me. I could tell he was about to tell me to go away, but upon seeing the body I was carrying, he gasped.

"Marcus, see to it that they all get into the cave safe and sound."

Marcus nodded before going back to getting the villagers to move into the cave. Phineas nodded then turned to me, an expression of concern on his face.

"What happened?" he cried as he ran over to me. I put down Samuel and immediately, Phineas crouched down and checked his pulse. I crouched down next to him.

"Three health points," Phineas muttered. "That slash is nasty. It's going to take a Potion of Healing, Regeneration and a long sleep for it to fully heal."

I took a quick glance at Joe, who was still trying to get up. Zombies must be very unfit to not be able to pick themselves up.

"Benjamin, listen to me. A regular potion won't do the trick anymore. Convert the Potion of Weakness into a Splash Potion. Do you follow?"

I nodded.

"Good. As for the Golden Apple, try to coax Joe into thinking the apple will give him powers to, I don't know, take over the world. Just as long as you think Joe will be interested in it and be foolish enough to believe it, go for it."

There was a loud scream of rage, which indicated that Joe finally managed to pick himself up and spotted us.

"Okay, do it as fast as you can. The faster you move, the faster Joe will be back to normal."

I nodded again as I stood up. I ran over towards Joe, who seemed to have started targeting Phineas. I quickly ran over to Phineas' house and stood by the door.

"Oi! Joe! Looking for me?" I yelled as loud as I could.

The zombie farmer spun around, and as soon as he noticed me, he bared his teeth, changed targets and ran towards me once again, his hoe clutched in his green, clammy hands.

As soon as he was about ten blocks away, I quickly got inside and slammed the door shut. Joe, since he was now a zombie, seemed to have completely forgot how to open doors. He started banging on the door, thinking that doing so would eventually open it. I turned to the numerous chests that stood in the room. As I did, I accidently tripped over a stray glass bottle and fell face first onto the floor. I was about to curse at the bottle when I looked up, and saw a chest labelled 'GUNPOWDER: HOLD YOUR BREATH WHEN OPENING'. Deciding to completely ignore the random stroke of luck, I picked myself up and threw open the lid. But I was very unfortunate enough to disregard the instruction to hold my breath, because as soon as I opened it, grey powder poofed out of it, making me cough and splutter. After the cloud of gunpowder cleared, I peered inside and saw clumps and clumps of gunpowder, just like the ones I saw back when the first creeper was killed. I picked one up, closed the chest, and placed the Potion of Weakness in the output slot, and the gunpowder on the input slot.

I waited.

…

I waited a bit more.

…

But nothing happened.

I peered around the brewing stand to see if any sign of activity was showing, but it seemed dead. I thought for a moment on why it would look dead. Then I slapped my forehead.

It was out of fuel.

I groaned, with which Joe, who was still trying to open the door, groaned as well. I wondered if he thought I was a zombie too because I groaned as I browsed through the chests, looking for one that was labelled 'BLAZE POWDER' or something of that sort. I eventually found one on the bottom row. I opened it and peered outside.

It was empty.

I cursed silently as I slammed the lid shut. Now that there was no blaze powder to fuel the brewing stand, there was no Splash Potion, which meant no hope for Joe. I sighed deeply as I sat down.

There was a loud crack, followed by a sensation of excruciating pain coming from my right buttock.

I stood up and looked at the thing I sat on, trying to fight back tears of pain as I did. The stray glass bottle lay there, shattered, with a few specks of blood here and there. As I plucked out the glass shards from my bottom, realization struck me.

Marcus was right.

This world was a more realistic version of Minecraft. I didn't need Splash Potions to inflict potion effects onto other people. I just needed to throw the bottle hard enough for it to shatter. I grinned to myself as I approached the door and grabbed the doorknob, before pulling my hand back in the nick of time. I almost forgot that there was a deranged zombie villager right outside the door. Speaking of Joe, he seemed to have resorted to using whatever he could find to bash his way in, including the stick part of his hoe (I decided to not question on why he wasn't using the metal part), his head and a handful of wheat.

I ran over to the window and punched it. I stood there for a moment clutching my hand as blood seeped through my fingers before climbing through the empty window frame. I jumped down, landed skillfully on the ground and looked up.

Only to get about three arrows to the face.

I howled in pain as I tried to pull the arrows out of my face, while also trying to avoid any more attacks from the skeletons. I eventually succeeded, but not before being spiked by more arrows from the bony monsters. Once I was certain there were no monsters following me, I looked up at the sky. My stomach plummeted.

The sun was almost up.

I quickly ran over to the front of the house, only to see Joe still trying to get himself in. I snuck up behind him, and held the Golden Apple in my hand. Thinking over what Phineas told me, I chose one of the arrows I got shot by, snapped them in half and threw the flint part of it at Joe. The zombie farmer immediately spun around again and faced me.

"Looking for someone, Joe?"

Joe growled, but didn't move. He seemed to have seen the Golden Apple I was holding in my hand. I guess zombies just like golden stuff.

"Yes! The Golden Apple! It will give you super powers! Powers to, uh, rule the world and stuff! You know, give you the power to, uh, you know, contaminate more people, and, uh, I don't know, uh, growl louder?"

Joe growled rather loudly, and ran to me, completely forgetting to bring his trusty hoe. I quickly sprinted away, keeping in mind that I had to get him with the Potion Weakness before he eats the Golden Apple. I knew I got him convinced to eat the Golden Apple, so all I had to do was to use the potion on him, then drop the apple. I looked up and saw the sun almost up. I knew it was a matter of time before the sun's bright rays start frying Joe like a sausage. Then, I had a brainwave.

I changed course and started heading towards the lake that resided next to the village. I made sure that I had plenty of dirt in my inventory, then came to a halt in front of the lake. Joe, noticing I changed direction did the same and ran towards the lake as well. I readied the Potion of Weakness in my hand as Joe got closer. Then when he was only about fifteen or so blocks away, I threw the bottle containing the grey liquid as hard as I could.

Upon making contact with Joe's shredded robes, the bottle shattered, glass shards flying everywhere. The potion splashed over him, drenching the zombie villager. But as soon as it touched Joe, the potion sucked right into his body. A second later, grey particle effects were faintly wafting off him. The potion was working.

As for Joe himself, he seemed to get momentarily stunned. But, as soon as the Potion of Weakness did its thing, he growled again and ran towards me. I turned around and jumped into the cool, shallow water and waded over to a good distance. Joe followed, and entered the lake with a big splash. He, too, started wading towards me as fast as he could. I quickly dropped the Golden Apple and waded a safe distance away. Joe, upon seeing the apple, picked it up eagerly, examined it for a moment before eating the whole apple in one bite.

The effect was immediate. As soon as he finished chewing the apple and swallowed it, the particles turned red, and Joe started shivering wildly. I pumped the air. Joe was safe, just so as long as he didn't get out of the lake. The sun was now up, and I could see the regular zombies start to go up in flames. As far as I could see, no one seemed to have been hurt, which was good. I took a quick glance at where Joe was.

Only, the place where Joe stood was now empty.

Before I had time to process what I just saw, I felt someone punch me from behind. I fell face first again, but this time, it was into water, not a hard, wooden floor. I pulled myself up, wiped the water out of my eyes and looked up. Joe was standing there, and he was posed for another punch. I yelped and ducked just in time, and I made towards the shore. From previous experience, the curing process took roughly around five minutes. It seemed to be an awfully long time to have Joe chasing after me in the water to stop him from going onto land and getting burned to death, but I guessed it was worth it in the end.

I went around and around in circles in the lake, with Joe right at my heels the whole time. I made sure to keep on the shallow end to make sure Joe didn't get submerged and turn into a completely different variant of a zombie. It was only after about four minutes that my legs started to get tired. But I kept going, knowing that Joe was only a minute or so until he became normal again. And for the whole time, I was thinking where everyone else, knowing that since it was now day, there were no more zombies to deal with. I kept wading around, until after about what I thought was the one hundred and eighty sixth lap in the lake, my legs gave way and I collapsed, splashing into the water.

I was too exhausted to fight back when Joe, who had managed to keep up his stamina for the entire time, grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and carried me to the shore. I knew that I had absolutely no energy, what with after the raid, avoiding zombies and the mini cross country in the lake. I decided to just accept my fate, and let Joe inflict the fatal blow. I scrunched my eyes tightly as I was dragged like a sack of potatoes onto the sandy shore. I knew that any minute now, he would either punch me to death, or bash my head in with a stick, or something else that's equally brutal and painful. I braced myself for impact.

…

I braced myself some more.

…

I had to admit, the time it took for Joe to at least make some sort of violent action was quite longer than I expected. I slowly opened one eye to see what the hold-up was.

The green eyes that looked back at me explained everything.

**Author's End note: And there we have it! A happy ending! Joe's back, and what might happen next? I don't know either. I'll get planning as soon as possible. As for the title cover, it's taking longer than I thought to get things drawn to perfection, then coloured in. But, I'll get it done in the end. As for now, I'll see you all in the next chapter! Bye!**


	9. Chapter 9: Recovery

**Author's Start note: Okay, the reason behind the months of absentness is because I had exams. Normally, I would've used my spare time to continue on this, but, I'm not that much of a smarty-pants, so, study was key. Yeah. Unfortunately, about the new title cover, it was taking **_**way**_** too long to make, and it was too complicated. So I decided to scrap it. Sorry to those who were looking forward to it. I really am. However, I decided to try to make something a little simpler than the one I scrapped, yet better than the one I have right now. And eventually, I finally got around to do it! Yay! So yeah, with that over with, let's get straight into it! Oh, and yes, Minecraft stuff belong to Mojang, six boys and specific villagers to me, and action!**

Chapter 9: Recovery

"Joe?" I gasped.

Joe didn't respond. Instead, he just dragged me across the water and placed me onto the shore. I sneaked a glance at him. The once blood-red eyes were now back to their original green, and the vicious and murderous expression he had about a minute ago was replaced by an expression of concern. His skin still had a bit of a greenish tint to it, but otherwise, he was still back to the good ol' Joe I wanted to see.

"Benjamin!"

Upon hearing my name, I tried to get back onto my knees. But as soon as I lifted myself up, Joe pushed me back down. I tried to protest, but he just looked at me and shook his head.

I could hear footsteps coming towards our direction. I tilted my head a little to the right, and saw Phineas, Jeffrey, Harry and the others rushing towards me and Joe. Once they reached us, Harry and Jeffrey rushed over to Joe's side and the others to my side.

"Oh my God, man, are you okay?" asked Daniel.

"You could've died!" shouted Fred.

"Bro, you could've gotten your head hoed off!" exclaimed Johnathan.

"You could've drowned in that lake!" added Samuel.

"Alright, that's enough!" boomed Phineas. "He just did something that I'm sure none of us could've, or would've, expected of him. Now, leave him be. I'll take him to my home. He needs rest."

As he helped me to my feet, Jeffrey ran over to us.

"Mr Phineas, sir. Joe isn't feeling quite well. He won't say a thing, sir," he said.

"He's in shock, Jeffrey. He just went through a magical process of transforming from one being to another, then back again. Of course he would be speechless. Go tell Mr Bairnes to take his son home, and to put him straight to bed. No food today. He'll just chuck it back up. Now go."

Jeffrey nodded, then trotted back to Harry's side. Phineas turned back to me and led me to his house. Once we arrived, he motioned towards a bed that had yellow sheets, which I took as a sign to get in. As I took off my shoes, Phineas reached into a chest, pulled out some things, and went over to a bench. He took a bowl, put some things inside it, including the contents of a bottle with some red liquid inside, and started mashing and mixing them with a stick. After about half a minute of said action, he put the stick down and brought the bowl to me.

"Here, drink this. It'll heal you up."

I peered into the bowl. It had some strange liquid in it. It was pinkish brown, and smelt quite odd. It had some lumpy bits in it, too.

"Mushroom stew. It's good for you."

I took one last look at the stew, put the tip of the bowl to my lips, and then sipped. Immediately, the flavor of mushed up raw mushrooms assaulted my taste buds. I spat it out, ran over to some water bottles standing at the bench then swallowed it all in one gulp.

"Urgh! That's disgusting!" I groaned as I wiped my mouth. I looked at Phineas, only to see a very grumpy cleric covered in spat-out mushroom soup. He gave a stern glare as he wiped the mess with his cloak.

"Go to bed. Now."

Meekly, I mumbled a sheepish "Sorry", rushed over to the bed and got in. Phineas walked over to me, with the stern expression still on his face. I immediately got under the covers, the thought of getting spanked on the butt by a vengeful villager haunting my mind. Instead, he pulled the covers off, put his fingers under my chin for a second or two, and then let go. Phineas then took off his cloak and walked over to the door. As he opened it, he looked at me.

"Go to sleep. You're still on very low health."

"But don't you have healing potions?" I asked.

"I did. I put it in the mushroom stew," he replied in a flat tone.

"Oh" was all I could say at that point. Phineas gave one final look at me before closing the door. I decided that if I was ever going to be healthy enough to go outside and meet my friends again, I was going to have to go to sleep. As I closed my eyes, I suddenly remembered Joe. I hoped that he would be alright. And with that, I fell into a deep slumber.

[some hours later…]

"Wake up!"

I blearily opened one eye, only to see a dark brown eye looking at me back.

"Wuh, who? Marcus? Is that you?"

"Yes! Look, please wake up. Joe said that he wanted to see you! Now!"

I rolled over.

"Tell him to wait another hour or so. I'm still sleepy."

I felt something grab me, turn me over, and without any warning, something slapped me across the face, a loud crack sounding as it did. I opened one eye, and saw Fred glaring back at me, and boy, did he look angry.

"Listen, ya doofus! Joe said he needed to talk to you, so wake the hell up!"

I closed my eye.

"Later."

And before I knew it, Fred slapped me repeatedly in the face, the same crack sounding every time his hand made contact with my face. After about ten seconds of the violent action, he grabbed my collar and brought me to almost a centimeter from his face. He growled, through gritted teeth,

"Wake up now, or I swear, I will punch you next."

I could hear what sounded Samuel, Marcus and Jeffrey frantically try to calm Fred down. I looked back at him, then smiled. And, for some unknown and strange reason, I heard myself replying to him,

"Go ahead."

I immediately regretted saying it the moment I did, but by then, it was too late. Fred drew his blocky fist back, then swiped at me.

The crack sounded.

I heard someone gasp, then all went silent.

My vision blacked out.

I couldn't feel anything.

It could only mean one thing.

I groaned inwardly, because at the current moment, I had a non-existent feeling that only my conscience existed. Nothing else. Just my mind. Urgh, it was horrible. I tried to move, hoping that at least one of my human-ness would still exist, but alas, I couldn't do _anything_. I sighed inwardly.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour or so, my vision slowly returned. My mobility came back, and I could start to feel my own body again. For some strange reason, though, I was just floating inside what seemed like a dark, empty cube. But I disregarded that, because I was overjoyed of finally being able to feel like a human again. Just as I was starting to celebrate the return of my human functions, however, two words, in a familiar font, appeared on the wall facing me.

_You died!_

Underneath it, there was a death message. It read:

'_Minebencraft321 was slain by FreddyFredFreds as a consequence of his own stupidity. What a loser._'

I groaned. I guess with all the sleepiness, I wasn't thinking straight, and forgot how strong Fred's hits were. He even warned me that he would punch me! And yet, I told him to "Go ahead"!

Stupid me.

As I grumbled over my own stupidity, a single stone bar suddenly appeared under the death message. I 'swam' closer to it, and found that engraved onto it in the same font as the death message, was one word:

'_Respawn_'

Knowing exactly what it would do, I eagerly pressed my whole right hand onto it, and pushed it as hard as I could. As soon as the bar pushed all the way in, a bright light filled the room. Suddenly, all my human senses were replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling, with a high pitched whirring noise in my ear. My vision was starting to go completely white. From the limited vision that I had, I could see the respawn button disappearing, and soon after, the death message and the 'You died!' text disappearing too. As my vision started to completely fill with whiteness, I could see the one, and only, word on the wall facing me:

'_Respawning…_'

**Author's End note: Short chapter, I know. But, I promise to upload faster next time. About the new, title, cover, uh, I know it looked a little sketchy, but it was the best I could do. The one I have right now is not actually the second, but the **_**third**_**. That's because for the second one, I made it so it fits with the whole Minecraft dirt picture. The problem is, when I uploaded it, only the middle section was shown. So all you could see was 'Mission: NECRA.' And THAT, if you guys know what Necra is, would've made my story very different from the title (I only found out about Necra being a game after I finished making the title cover). So that's that. Anyway, that's it for now, I'll start the next chapter as soon as possible, then upload it as soon as possible! See you all then! Bye!**


	10. Chapter 10: Plans and Farewell

**Author's Start note: The tenth chapter! First of all, sorry for taking eons to update. My bad. Had stuff like school and life stuff to deal with. I will try to post more frequently from now, although it may not be a guarantee. Again, apologies. Now, with that said, six boys and certain villagers (Joe, Harry, Phineas, Brian, Jeffrey and others of whom I will not name) belong to me, and the rest to Mojang, and away we go!**

Chapter 10: Plans and Farewell

"AAARRGGGHHHH!"

I sat up on the bed. The same yellow bed. I looked around, and saw Samuel pointing at me, screaming. Johnathan turned to him.

"Bro, why are you screaming?"

"H-He just appeared out of n-nowhere, a-and I got so s-scared, a-and – "

At that point, he just buried his face into Johnathan's chest and mumbled incoherent sentences while sobbing. Johnathan awkwardly placed a hand on his back and slowly patted him.

"You got what you deserved."

I turned to the speaker of the sentence. I never saw Fred looking angrier.

"Well, I mean, I was sleepy and all, so I wasn't thinking straight. Sorry."

Fred just grumbled as he turned his back on me. Samuel was still sobbing, and Johnathan awkwardly sat him down on the bench and gave him some paper to blow his nose with. Marcus was making a valiant attempt to calm the 'traumatised' boy, but to no avail. And who knew where the others were.

Just when the tension was getting unbearable, the door burst open, and Jeffrey came rushing in.

"Benjamin! Joe said he needed to see you! NOW!"

He grabbed me by the sleeve and pulled me out of the bed, then out of the house. He ran over to what looked like Harry's house. I recognized it from when Joe took us to get the prophecy. Jeffrey kicked open the door, and pushed me in.

"Mr Bairnes, sir! He's here!"

Harry looked at me and frowned.

"What kept you?"

I felt myself starting to sweat.

"Uh, well, I uh, you see, uh, ah, eh heh heh, uh…"

The old villager shook his head.

"It doesn't matter. What matters now is that my son wants to have a word with you. "

"Now?"

"Yes, now."

I walked over to the bed that was resting in the corner of the room. And in that bed was another old villager that I couldn't recognize.

"Who is that?" I asked, gesturing towards the stranger.

"Oh, that's my brother, Andy."

Andy smiled at me with those wrinkled lips of his.

"Hello!" he said in a cheerful tone.

I waved back with an awkward smile.

"So, where's Joe, then?"

"In the other room."

Harry walked over to a door and opened it. I went over to it and peeked inside.

"Oh, hello, Ben."

Joe seemed somewhat back to normal. He still seemed a little more quiet and timid, but at least his appearance was back to normal.

"Hello, Joe. You feeling better?"

"Yeah. I'd say I'll make a full recovery by the end of this week."

That last part startled me.

"You guys have a way to keep track of time?"

Joe motioned towards the wall to his left. On it was what looked like a calendar. It had everything a calendar in the real world would have: months, days, red letter days (days like ANZAC and Queen's birthday were replaced with Trading day and Golem festival, but at least it had Christmas) and even nice little pictures of nice little animals on every page. According to the calendar, it was the 11th of June. The year was –

"Joe, why is the year just four X's?" I asked, pointing to what I assumed to be the year.

"Oh, that. I honestly have no idea what it means either."

I was about to ask what happens in Golem festivals when Joe spoke up.

"Alright. Enough about this. We can talk about it afterwards. But for now, we need to talk."

"What about?"

Joe fell silent, then looked at his father, who was silently listening from the corner of the room.

"Dad, can you leave us for a bit?"

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Privacy, dad. This is serious."

The retired farmer sighed before walking out of the room.

"Oh, and also."

He stopped.

"Replace the door with the birch one."

Harry spun around.

"Why?"

"Privacy. Don't want you guys listening by the door."

"But what's the difference?"

"The oak door has holes in it."

Harry grumbled before grabbing the door, ripping it off in one whole piece (how?), putting it in a chest nearby, grabbing a birch door from it then placing it down in the empty door frame.

"Happy?"

"Yeah. Thanks dad."

Harry gave a small smile before walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Joe turned to me.

"Now, Benjamin. I think it's about time we talked about some serious matter."

"And that is?"

Joe took a deep breath.

"The prophecy, Ben. The prophecy."

Immediately, the door burst open, and Harry burst in.

"Ha! I KNEW you needed my help! If you're going to talk about the prophecy, then there's no way you could talk about it any better than I can!"

Joe got out of bed and pushed his father out of the room. Grumbling, he grabbed the door, ripped it off in one whole piece (HOW?), put it in the chest nearby, grabbed a spruce door from it then placed it down in the empty doorframe.

He opened the door a crack, and shouted into the room outside,

"I understand the prophecy fully well, dad! I'll call for you when I need you!"

He slammed the door shut, walked over, then sat down on the bed.

"There. Spruce doors should be more sound-proof than birch. Don't know WHY some doors have holes in them. Don't know WHY."

Joe sighed, then looked at me.

"Is your dad that annoying?"

For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I was from a real world, and that he was living in a fake one. I played plenty of video games that broke the fourth wall to know that nothing beneficial were to come out of telling Joe that he was living in an artificial reality. So I just shook my head.

"Ah, I see. Don't know why my dad tries to interfere with every single conversation I take part in."

From the other side of the door, we could hear a faint voice saying, "No, I don't!"

Joe got up, opened the chest and rummaged through it. After a bit, he took out an oak sapling, a block of dirt and some white, powdery thing. He took out the oak planks in front of the door with his bare hands (just HOW?), placed the dirt there, planted the sapling then smooshed the white thingy into the dirt around the small sapling. Immediately, the little plant shot up into the air as a fully mature oak tree, which blocked the door, and hence blocked out any noise that could be heard on the other side (mainly Harry's rant about gratitude and respect).

"How about that, dad? Ha!"

Either because he couldn't hear or because he was too grumpy to talk back, no response came from the other side of the door. Joe smiled before walking back to the bed and lying down on it.

"Now, the prophecy, Ben. I wanted to talk to you about it. That fine by you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Go ahead."

"Good. Now, do you remember the last sentence of the Village Prophecy Part Two?"

I racked by brain for any memories about the prophecy, but the only things that popped up in my head was the raid, and how the heroes defeated the Raid and saved the village. Which, now that I said it, sounded like the whole prophecy summed up in less than one sentence. So I just shook my head.

Joe walked over to the same chest and pulled out the prophecy book. He walked back, sat down next to me and flipped to the last page. I looked at it, and suddenly, it all started coming back to me.

'_And when they do come back, we will make sure that they do____become our leader, and __**never leave us again**__.'_

"You remember now?"

I nodded before turning to face the farmer.

"But you said you won't do it, though."

Joe let out a small chuckle.

"Yes, I know I did."

"And you better not take your word back!"

"Now THAT'S the problem."

I blinked in confusion.

"Wait, what?"

Joe took a deep breath, then started talking.

"Benjamin, I assure you that I am not the sort of person to take back their word for an unjust and unreasonable reason. Yes, I do not wish to keep you and your friends here if it is against your choice. Neither does Phineas. Nor my dad. Why, did we not have a little talk over dinner back when I was about six about the whole 'keeping the heroes' part? And did my father not keep repeating the word 'nonsense' and 'lunacy'? And I am almost certain Jeffrey goes against this too. Oh yes, let's not forget good ol' Brian!"

"Wait, who was Brian again?"

"The librarian. You know, the one with the cool hat that looks like a book? And the glasses?"

"Oh, right. Him. Yeah. Anyway, continue."

"Thank you. Now, I went around asking people about the end of the prophecy. I am sure that I asked every single villager taking residence in this little town."

"Wait, why?"

"Because I had a sense of uneasiness about the prophecy. A feeling that made me think that the villagers I talked and lived with everyday all had a more, well, _not-as-friendly_ side. A feeling of devotion was present in all of them, yes. But along with that, I think a feeling of possessiveness came with it. Maybe even lunacy, like my dad said. I don't know, it's just a theory. Anyway, all of the responses, except for me, my dad, Jeff, Brian and Phineas, were all for the prophecy. Said that if we didn't believe in it, we were 'Disrespecting the Heroes of the Village' and that we should just 'Run off and fend for ourselves." So, what do you think of that?"

Silence followed, before I broke it by saying,

"Damn, that's a lot of philosophy. You should've been something more than a farmer."

Joe blushed.

"Thank you. But our occupations and life devotions pass down through the family blood, according to my dad."

More silence followed while I thought of what Joe said. Not about the occupations. The long and surprisingly wise theory Joe made.

After a bit, I finally replied.

"Yeah, you might be right. Those villagers definitely have some strange, yet powerful connection with the two people who saved this village before. But tell me, you explained about what you and your dad think of the prophecy, but what about the others? You didn't ask Phineas what he exactly thought, did you?"

"Oh, Phineas was with me when dad ranted on and on about the prophecy. He was spending the night at my house that day. He seemed to be nodding throughout the whole talk, so I assumed he agreed."

"Oh. Okay."

"Still remember that night. We were having this particularly delicious meal of baked potatoes and cooked chicken. Freshly out of the smoker, the chicken was. And the baked potato was still crispy and hot. We also had sweet berry and apple juice with it, and afterwards, we had a slice of pumpkin pie each, and – "

"Okay, that's enough! You're starting to make me drool!"

"Oh, sorry. You hungry, then?"

"Oh, no. I'll eat after this."

"Alright, then. Anyway, with Brian, we were having a lovely time reading this book in the library. It was a wonderful fairy tale, mind you. It was called 'The Tale of Wolf and Fox.'"

"Wait, don't wolves try to kill foxes?"

"Well, it's a fairy tale, after all. Just like how there's talking furnaces and the poisonous carrots. I mean, come one, we have poisonous potatoes, but poisonous carrots? Fairy tales can be very misleading, you know."

I had no words.

"Anyway, yes, Brian was talking about the book. Then I remember asking him about what he thought about the prophecy, as it was only the night before that my dad ranted, and it was still in my head. He just looked at me funny, and said, 'What prophecy?' So I asked the librarian at that time if we could read the two volumes of the Village Prophecy, so he gave them to us, and we read. Mind you, Brian was a very smart kid back then, so he had no trouble understanding what it meant. Probably understood it more than I did. In the end, when he read the last sentence, he gasped. And guess what he said?"

"Surprise me."

"Why?"

"Because how should I know what Brian said?"

"Oh, you must have misunderstood. I meant that Brian said 'Why?' after we finished reading."

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"That's okay. So that's Brian. Jeffrey, uh, his response was a little sketchy. I read him the prophecy about, I'd say, four days before you guys came here. After we finished, I asked him what he thought about the ending. He just looked at me and said he really didn't have any opinion on it. So from that, I deduced that he didn't have any of the possessiveness the others have."

I slowly nodded.

"What about your uncle Andy?" I queried.

Joe laughed at that.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, you'd have loved his response when he first read it! I was a kid back then, too. As he approached the end of the prophecy, his eyebrows slowly went down and down until he reached the final sentence. His eyebrows suddenly went _woosh_ as it went up!"

"So, that means he's against it, right?"

"He threw the book back down onto the table afterwards, so I'm assuming yes."

"Okay, then. But here's one last question."

"What is it?"

"What does this have to do with me?"

Joe closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Am I wrong in thinking that you and your friends are leaving very soon?"

"Uh…"

That question took me off guard. I just realized that we spent quite a bit of time in the village, and we completely abandoned our own houses. Heck, I didn't even finish my own house. Who knows how many monsters spawned in our house due to lack of lighting?

"So, are you?"

"Hey, uh. Can I talk to the others about this? I don't think it's right to just decide on my own."

"Oh, okay then. Sure."

I stood up and walked over to the door. I reached out for the handle, only for my hand to plant itself into something rough.

Right. I forgot about the tree.

I opened my inventory, took out an axe I got from a Vindicator from the raid, then chopped two oak logs from the tree. I opened the door and entered main room, where Andy was sipping a cup of what looked like hot chocolate.

"Wait, ever since when did cups and hot chocolate exist in this world?" I asked Andy.

"You must've been living under a rock to not know about this amazing creation! Well, sonny, the first thing you do is get a block of clay. Mind you, it's much better if it's from a water bank, because you don't need to soak it to use it. Then, you just mold it into a cup shape, then chuck it into a furnace. Never a blast furnace. Blast furnaces makes your cup go brittle, because it gets over-cooked. Then, if you place the cup down just that bit too hard, it shatters into a billion pieces."

I just slowly nodded. Marcus was absolutely correct about the Minecraft world being more realistic.

"As for the hot chocolate, why, you just get cocoa beans, mush them, add some sugar and milk, mush and mix them some more, heat them up in any way you want, and boom! Hot coco!"

I wished that actual Minecraft had all of this.

"Okay, that's nice to know. So, have you seen Harry?"

"Oh, yes. Harry left to see that fellow down the path."

"Uh, who?"

"Think his last name was Harvey."

"His first name?"

"Uh, I think, something like Phin, or –"

"Phineas?"

"Yes! Phineas! Phineas Harvey! Yes, my brother went to visit him."

Phineas Harvey. PH. pH. How ironic for someone who makes potions and other scientific stuff.

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Mr Bairnes."

"Oh, you can just call me Andy. I'm fine with that."

"Oh, okay then. Thanks, Andy."

The two brothers seemed to be very alike in personality.

"Alright then. Thanks for the info. I'll be off then. Bye!"

"Bye!"

I rushed out the door, closing it behind me. I ran down the grass path, only lit by the glowstone lamps built along the path. I ran towards Phineas's house, where I completely ignored everything my mum taught me about manners and rammed into the door.

Upon which the crack sounded, and I fell sprawling onto the floor.

I looked up, rubbing my fore arm. The door was birch, which meant I couldn't see through it. I stood up and peeked through the windows. Something wooly was staring back at me. So I just walked up to the door, knocked twice on the door, and then swung it open.

Where on the other side stood was two blocks of obsidian, stacked on top of each other.

I groaned loudly as I banged my fist onto the hard, dark purple rock. A villager from the house next to Phineas' opened his door and peeked out.

"Are you okay?"

I looked at him with a puzzled expression on my face.

"Uh, what?"

"I asked if you were okay or not."

"Oh, uh, I'm fine, thanks. What made you think I wasn't?"

"Oh, um, you groaned pretty loudly. So I assumed that you had a stomach ache or something."

"Oh, right. Okay. Well, thanks for expressing your concern."

"You're welcome."

He was just about to close the door when I noticed that he was wearing a black apron. And on it was a light blue glint. The master's badge. It only meant one thing.

"Wait, excuse me?"

The tool smith peeked out again.

"Yes?"

"Uh, you are a tool smith, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh."

"Master?"

"Proudly!"

"Well, in that case, can I borrow a diamond pickaxe? Just for a minute?"

The tool smith looked at me for a few seconds, before saying,

"Okay then."

He rushed back into his house, then rushed back out holding a shining diamond pickaxe. He tossed it to me.

"There you go. One diamond pickaxe."

"Thanks."

I raised it over my head to start mining down the obsidian when the tool smith said,

"That will be ten emeralds, please."

I spun around to face him.

"What? Ten emeralds? But I saved your village! You would've been dead without me! And besides, I'm only borrowing it for a minute."

The villager peeked into his house, then turned back to me.

"Your minute has passed. Hand the pickaxe over."

"But –"

"Now."

I sighed before walking over to him and placing the pickaxe into his outstretched hands. Once I did, he smiled at me before walking back to his house.

"Thank you. Have a nice day!"

Once he went back in, I took a deep breath, before sighing loudly. I knew that screaming would not break the obsidian, nor would it blow the house down, despite it being made of wood.

Suddenly, I felt very stupid. Of course! I could just chop my way in!

I grabbed the Vindicator's axe from my inventory, held it high, and yelled,

"I'll make my way in, you see that I don't!"

I raised it higher, before swinging it down onto the oak planks that the wall was made of.

_Clunk_ went the axe as the blade broke clean off, falling onto the cold dirt with a thud.

I stared at the handle, splinters of wood sticking out of the end that once held the blade. Silently swearing at the Vindicator for using so much of the axe's durability, I walked over to a tree nearby the house. It was surrounded by stone at the base, as well as torches on each side of the trunk. I sat down on one of the stone and sighed, stretching my legs.

As I put my feet down on a piece of stone that was strangely poking out, a soft click sounded.

My heart froze.

Then the block I was sitting on was pulled away, sending me plummeting down a hole in the ground.

I screamed as I kept falling, down and down into what seemed to be a black emptiness below. I fell for what seemed like half a minute before landing in something.

_Clunk_.

Suddenly, I was cruising along a railway. A minecart. That's what I fell into. The metal tub rattled as it sped through a one block wide stone corridor lit with torches. Positioning myself so that I was sitting instead of lying down in a sprawled mess, I put my arms onto the side of the minecart and tried to recover from the fall.

Very unfortunately, just as I started to calm down, the minecart rolled into a stone room that was completely empty except for the rails and one single block that stood at the end of the room. Before I could register the fact that the minecart was speeding at top speed towards the block, the cart smashed against it, tossing me like a rag doll into a two by two hole in the wall. Before I could scream, I felt myself plunging into water, before shooting upwards like a rocket. Surprisingly, I could find myself breathing alright. As I looked around, I could see bubbles speeding past me, all of them pushing upwards.

'A water elevator' I thought to myself. There must have been soul sand at the bottom of this. I really wished I saw it, because I wanted to see how soul sand in real life would feel like. Would it feel like regular sand? Or would it feel different? Maybe more thicker in texture? Or maybe –

Suddenly, with a great _woosh_, I shot out of the column and landed in a sprawled mess on a wooden surface, a puddle of water surrounding me.

"Ah, you finally arrived. Did my brother tell you where I was?"

I looked around the now almost full room, where a table was set up using fence posts and wooden pressure plates. Around the table were Samuel, Fred, Marcus, Daniel, Johnathan, Jeffrey, Brian, Harry and Phineas. Various food items were evenly distributed around the table.

"Wait, what are you all doing here?" I asked, getting up and wiping water off my face.

"Well, after you fell asleep," replied Harry, as he took a sip from a bowl of mushroom stew. "I started thinking about, well, _life_. You have read the prophecy, and Joe explained everything you deserved to know, so I think you can understand the, well, mindsets of the other villagers."

"Wait, what do you mean?" I asked, now squeezing water out of my soaked shirt.

"The last sentence, Ben" was all Daniel said.

Suddenly, it all made sense.

The villagers wanted to keep us here forever.

Forever.

But a certain number of villagers didn't go by that.

Joe, Harry, Phineas, Jeffrey, Brian and Andy.

"So, why are you guys having this meeting without me?" I asked.

Phineas faced me.

"Benjamin. We were having this meeting without you, because we need to go. We are not saying that we were planning to leave without you. Goodness, no. It's just that you were asleep, and we thought the quicker we held the meeting, the quicker we could leave. We all knew you would agree with us, so we decided on filling you in on the way out."

Suddenly, the door to a cabinet that stood on the floor behind the table opened a crack, before fully swinging open. I stifled a gasp as Joe came crawling out, covered in cobwebs.

"Dad, I thought you said you cleaned out the secret passageway?" the farmer questioned his father.

"What? You asked your uncle Andy to do it, not me!"

Joe grumbled as he closed the cabinet. He walked over to a stray barrel on the floor and sat on it, picking cobwebs off his sleeves.

"Are there any more secret passageways to this house that I am not aware of?" I asked.

Harry scratched his head.

"There's the one via the stone corridor, accessed through the closet in Joe's bedroom. There's another one via the composter in Joe's plot, as well as another one under the fountain. Oh, yes, let's not forget the one accessed via the tree outside the house."

"The -?"

"Yes, Ben. The one that you came out of."

I turned around and saw what seemed like a Minecraft variant of a bathtub. Surrounded by quartz blocks, with bright pink carpets in around it, the water was visibly bubbling, occasionally spitting flecks of water onto the carpets.

"Those carpets really work well with soaking water," Harry said, handing me what seemed to be more wooly carpets. "You can use them to clean up spills, wipe down sinks and even dry yourself off!" He winked at me, gesturing his hands towards the carpet. I took one of the carpets and, smiling at Harry.

"So, let me get this straight. We're going to be leaving this village because majority of the villagers want to keep us here so that we can protect them and then they can worship us in return?"

Johnathan took a sip of whatever was in his cup.

"That's about the gist of it, yeah."

"Those loonies," Daniel muttered into his bowl of soup.

Fred looked at the reluctant villager king.

"So you're all for leaving your loyal subjects?"

Daniel stopped drinking and cast an angry eye at him.

"One of them tried to kiss my feet. Another tried to kiss my LIPS. My God, the sooner we leave this place, the sooner I'll be the luckiest guy in this world."

Samuel stood up, clapping his hands together.

"Alrighty! When do we leave?" he asked, looking around the room.

"As soon as we develop some sort of plan, I guess," replied Marcus after finishing off what looked like a baked potato.

"Then it shouldn't take too long, should it?" commented Johnathan. "We pack the things we need to pack, then we go leave the village without anyone noticing,"

"In a nutshell," replied Harry.

Johnathan was the one to clap his hands together this time.

"Alright then. Everyone, get packing. Where do you suppose we meet up?" he asked.

"Meet at the fountain. Remember to be quick and quiet. Don't want anyone else involved in this," said Phineas.

Everyone murmured their agreements and got up. That was when my stomach grumbled.

"Hey, guys? Can I get some food to eat? I'm starving," I said, motioning towards the food still laying on the table.

"No time," grunted Harry.

"But – "

"We'll get you something to eat on the way. For now, get packing," Joe assured.

Nodding, I started towards the door before I realized something else.

"How do we get out?" I asked, slapping the obsidian that blocked the door.

Phineas reached into his pocket before pulling out an enchanted diamond pickaxe. Before I could question about how something that big could fit inside a small pocket, the cleric hacked at the dark stone until it broke.

"Efficiency really does help with these kinds of jobs," muttered Phineas before starting on the other block of obsidian.

As soon as the door was open, everyone started exiting one at a time. Taking an apple and a few sweet berries without anyone noticing, I followed Marcus out the door.

Torches lighting the pathway, I walked over to Joe's house, thinking and nibbling on the food at the same time. If we were going to leave, where would we go? We needed a place to stay. Like a –

I slapped my forehead. Our houses! Of course, our houses probably had more than enough space to house the six villagers. Deciding to tell the rest of them about those later, I walked over to the door and opened it. Andy was snoozing in a chair, rumbling snores coming out of his drooling mouth. Joe came in behind me. He put a finger to his lips, before tip-toeing over to his bedroom and opening the door. I followed him in, only to see that the tree was still there, despite having the bottom two blocks of wood removed. Joe opened his closet and rummaged through his chest, occasionally putting things into his inventory.

"Wait, you guys have inventories too?" I asked.

"Of course. How else do you think we carry our crops and emeralds when we need to put them away?"

I nodded, and Joe resumed packing his stuff. Not too long after, he stood up, holding a broken iron hoe.

The same hoe he used before and during his zombified form.

"Did, did I try to kill you with this, Ben?" he asked, hands shaking.

I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded for what seemed like the billionth time that day.

Joe didn't say anything. Suddenly, he rushed past me and out the room, followed by sounds of metallic thunking noises. I peeked outside just as a woosh sounded.

"Burning this thing. It won't even work anyway," Joe said quietly, crouching before the furnace, watching as his former hoe melted. Soon, he reached inside with his sleeves covering his blocky fingers and took out what seemed to be an iron nugget. He blew on it to cool it down, before going back into the room. I followed him back in. He seemed to have put it deep into his pocket. Joe closed the chest before sighing.

"Listen, I'm sorry if – "

"Nah, it's fine. You weren't yourself then. Besides, the worse thing that probably happened to me was a leg cramp from running in circles in the lake for five minutes. It's fine."

Joe looked uncertain, but eventually, he managed a small smile.

"Thanks, Ben."

I smiled back.

"No problem, man."

Suddenly, Harry burst in through the door. He was about to say something before he looked up to see the floating stumpy tree.

"What in damnations is this?" the old villager asked, pointing at the still levitating tree.

"Did you know, dad, that trees are very sound-proof? They're marvelous for keeping out eavesdroppers," quipped Joe.

Harry flushed red and put on a stern expression.

"You may be a young adult now, Joseph Bairnes. However, I will not accept such rude comments come from you to your own father. Now hurry up and finish. We're leaving in a minute," he grumbled.

"Alright, sorry dad. I'll try to never do it again," muttered Joe.

The father sniffed before turning to leave. He was just about to close the door when Joe called out.

"Uh, dad? Is uncle Andy coming with us?" he asked.

Suddenly, Andy himself bounced in, ready with a hat and walking stick (which very much looked like a bamboo stalk). For an old and wrinkled villager who recently woke from a nap, he sure had lots of energy.

"You betcha I'm going, nephew! An adventure for old time's sake! If it means leaving these loony balls, even better!" exclaimed Andy. Joe grinned.

"Alright. Thanks."

Andy bounded back out of the room, before asking Harry about whether or not he should bring his cup.

"So, you ready?" Joe asked, closing his closet door.

"Yeah. All the things I need are either in my inventory, or in my house," I replied, patting my chest.

"Woah, you have a house! Cool!" Joe said, as we walked out of his bedroom. "Is it big?"

"You'll see soon enough" was all I said.

We exited the house, followed closely by Harry and Andy. They closed the door behind them, before sticking a piece of paper on the door. I looked closer to read it. It said:

'Anyone willing to give up their job for farming, feel free to move into this house. Supplies found in chests, however minimal they may be. The plot directly outside this house is yours. Good luck and have fun.'

"That should take care of itself," said Harry as he patted the wall of the house.

"Ah, I'm going to miss this old plot," sighed Andy, hobbling over to the vegetable plot and stroking the leaves of a carrot.

"Oh well, time for a new life, brother. Shame your legs started going wonky so early," chuckled Harry.

"Damn you and your being seven years younger than me," huffed Andy, poking his laughing brother's shins with his walking stick.

Harry was about to say something else when Phineas quietly ran over to us.

"Hurry up, we're going to leave soon," whispered the cleric, ushering us along the pathway.

Everyone was gathered around the fountain, quietly whispering among themselves. There was Jeffrey, talking to Brian the librarian. Marcus, Daniel and Samuel admiring the water flowing in the fountain. Fred and Johnathan looking at the lake Joe and I had the game of chase in. We joined the group, and Phineas stepped onto the fountain.

"Alright everyone. Where do we go from here?" he whispered, quietly but still audibly.

Joe put his hand up. I almost laughed as memories of answering questions in school flashed across your minds.

"Ben here told me that he had a house. Perhaps we could go there for the time being?" the farmer suggested. Everyone looked at me.

"Is that so? In that case, do you agree, Benjamin?" Phineas asked.

I looked around, before walking over to the guys that came here with me.

"What do you say?" I asked.

"Do we have room?" Samuel whispered.

"We can get extra beds. Anything else that bothers you all about having six villagers stay in our homes?" I asked again.

"You have more than one house?" awed Jeffrey.

"Yeah. Three, to be exact. One for each pair," I replied.

Jeffrey gazed into space, probably imagining how big our houses will be.

"Alright. Final moment for objections. Anyone disagree on letting theses guys stay with us?"

"Yay! Guests!" cheered Samuel, before everyone shushed him.

"Fine by me," muttered Fred.

"Cool," replied Johnathan.

"I'd be honoured," said Marcus, smiling.

"Sure, I don't mind," added Daniel, shrugging.

I smiled at them before turning to the others.

"Alright. A decision has been made," I announced.

The villagers all held their breaths.

"Come on, let's go. You've got new homes awaiting you!"

The villagers quietly cheered. I turned towards the river that Samuel dropped into before we entered the village. From what I remembered, it wasn't too long of a journey. I estimated around five to ten minutes. I was just about to start walking when a voice called out into the night.

"Hey! Where do y'all think you're headin'?"

I turned around, as did the rest of our little travel party. It was dark, but I could see the outline of a villager. A woman, from what I could see. She stepped towards us and peered with suspicious eyes, her nightdress waving in the light night wind. She was holding what looked like a rolling pin.

"Phineas? Where do you think you're goin'?" she asked.

"Felicia?" asked Phineas, his eyes widening in what I hoped wasn't fear. If she could intimidate someone as fearless and stern as Phineas, that villager was someone I wouldn't want to mess with. I leaned over to Joe.

"Who's Felicia?" I whispered.

"She's one of the local bakers. Lovely cakes, she makes. But what would she be doing here?" Joe replied in an equally hushed voice.

"Phineas, why are you at the outer sides of the village? With _them_?" Felicia asked, aggression starting to lace her tone.

"I, well, you see …" stammered Phineas, taking a step back. I knew that it was only a matter of time before the other villagers heard the commotion. And I was not looking forward to being chased by an angry crowd.

"Phineas Harvey, you tell me what's going on, or I'm going over to that bell and start bangin' it with my rollin' pin," she threatened, pointing at the golden bell by the fountain with her pin.

Phineas took a deep breath, then sighed.

"I'm sorry, Felicia," he said, before turning to the rest of us and yelling,

"RUN!"

All of us were stunned by the sudden loudness, before recovering and turning to flee. Phineas turned too and started following us. Felicia started towards us and called out,

"Phineas, wait!"

Phineas, although he didn't stop running, turned around and called back,

"I'm sorry, Felicia!"

Suddenly, the doors of all the village houses burst open. I turned to see groggy villagers stumbling out of doorways, confused by the commotion, before seeing us running away from the village. Quickly, I turned back around and continued running away.

"Our saviours!" one of them yelled.

"Where's the king?" another yelled back.

"There!" another replied.

"KING DANIEL! COME BACK TO US!" yelled all of the villagers.

We waded and swam through the river, occasionally having to stop to prevent Andy from drowning. When we all reached the other side, we started climbing the cliff, one block at a time. It wasn't until we were halfway up when Fred yelled and pointed.

All the villagers were running towards us as one huge crowd. Torches and lanterns held by some of the pursuers gave the area an eerie orange hue. It was terrifying, seeing those angry big-nosed people chasing us, yelling and hollering.

However, they got as far as the river before stopping, obviously unwilling to go into the cold water at night in their pyjamas. They all stood at the edge of the river, some muttering about whether they should jump in, others looking at us.

We kept at it, pushing ourselves up the cliff, helping those that needed it, steadily ascending. Soon, Joe managed to get to the top, helping others to get up. As we slumped onto the soft grass one by one, recovering from having to climb a cliff, I looked over the cliff to see the villagers slowly making their way back to their homes. As Johnathan hi-fived all of us, Brian doubling over from tiredness, Fred whooping, others helping Andy to get back up on his creaky old feet, I saw someone still standing at the edge of the river looking at us.

Although it was dark, I could still make out the expression of sadness on Felicia's face.

**Author's End Note: Phewy! That was a long chapter. So our heroes have escaped the village, with six more allies on their side, doubling their numbers. What will happen next? Find out next time!**

**On a more serious note, stay safe, everyone. Remember to stay clean! We can get through this coronavirus pandemic! Stay strong, y'all! Until next time, I bid you all adieus! **


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